Mandatory quarantining of arriving air passengers begins

The first passengers to be detained in Hobart under mandatory quarantine orders have been escorted by police to a local hotel. SEE THE VIDEO

THE first group of airline passengers to be detained in government-operated quarantine facilities have been placed in isolation in a Hobart hotel.

Passengers aboard an 11.55am Jetstar flight from Melbourne were loaded onto two buses after arriving.

The flight was the first to arrive in the capital since the State Government imposed tough new restrictions on non-essential arriving passengers.

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The passengers were taken to the nearby Travelodge hotel at Cambridge under police guard.

A Tasmania Police officer pushes luggage belonging to passengers who arrived on a Jestar flight from Melbourne who have been taken to the Travelodge Hotel in Cambridge for their mandatory two-week quarantine. Picture: ZAK SIMMONDS

Seven people are currently in government-run quarantine detention in other parts of the state.

Premier Peter Gutwein on Monday morning would not reveal the details of where passengers being isolated would be housed.

He has previously said only that they were being taken to facilities in the state’s South, North and North-West.

Passengers who arrived on a Jestar flight from Melbourne at Hobart Airport out the front of the Travelodge Hotel in Cambridge to start their mandatory two-week quarantine. Picture: ZAK SIMMONDS

“There’s a long list of hotels. Obviously here in Hobart there’s one that’s being talked about which is Fountainside,” he said.

“But in terms of the hotels that are actually being used for the self-quarantine, there are a number on the list and we will select from them as we need them.

“I’m not going to go into what’s on the list, but ... whether it’s Wrest Point, the Woolstore here in Hobart or any other facility at the moment ... we don’t have people staying in those hotels, that’s the bottom line, and we will utilise the space that we need, based on the numbers of people coming forward.”