Mass texting blitz highlights COVID-19 risks to recent arrivals to Tasmania

Find out how many travellers from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland have recently entered the state.

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MORE than 50,000 text messages were sent to check on recent arrivals to Tasmania in just one day, as venues and customers are urged to keep up hygiene and social distancing measures.

Australian Medical Association state president Helen McArdle said there still appeared to be a level of complacency in Tasmania, despite the emergence of COVID-19 cases in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

AMA Tasmania president Helen McArdle. Picture: Eddie Safarik

“People are tending to walk past the hand sanitiser, they are probably socialising a bit more intently than is wise at the moment in the pandemic,” Dr McArdle said.

“I know the government has put together a communication plan to get that message out and I’ve seen some of the ads on the TV, and it just has to be pushed all the time. We don’t have any cases now but we don’t know when we will get one.”

The Public Health Service has been tracking interstate arrivals via the government’s online Tas e-Travel system and has been sending text messages to those from states affected by recent COVID clusters and cases.

On Friday (January 8) text messages were sent to 5667 recent arrivals to Tasmania who had indicated they had been in Queensland since Saturday January 2.

On Wednesday (January 6), texts were sent to 39,838 recent arrivals from Victoria and 2785 people who were intending to travel from Victoria to Tasmania in the next 72 hours.

Also on Wednesday, texts were sent to 8133 recent arrivals from NSW and 703 people intending to travel from NSW to Tasmania over the next 72 hours.

Text message sent to travellers to Tasmania from NSW warning of COVID-19 risks

A spokesman said those numbers included Tasmanians returning from those states.

“It is important to note that not all arrivals from NSW are subject to the restrictions that apply in medium and high risk areas of Sydney and Wollongong,” he said.

“It’s also important to note that many people who receive SMS messages have already left Tasmania and returned to their home state. Messages to travellers are based on Public Health advice and time frames. Generally they will be removed from the list once 14 days have passed since their arrival in Tasmania, although it can be longer if Public Health advises travellers need to be notified.”

Dr McArdle said a lot was being done to track potential COVID cases, but she urged Tasmanians and visitors to do their bit to reduce the spread of any potential cases in the state.

“Having been interstate a couple of times in the past few months, as soon as you get back you get a daily or second daily SMS, asking that if you’ve been to any areas that may have since arisen as hot spots that you contact Public Health. So I think a lot has been done to detect cases,” she said.

As of January 7, Tasmania had 236 people in government quarantine, including 156 seasonal workers from Vanuatu, and 666 people in home quarantine.