Premier Peter Gutwein rejects social media rumours about North-West coronavirus outbreak

Premier Peter Gutwein has poured scorn on rumours circulating on social media about possible causes of the North-West outbreak as experts work to trace the source.

THE hunt for the source of an outbreak which has infected 60 people with coronavirus in the North-West could take weeks, Tasmania’s Director of Public Health says.

Premier Peter Gutwein on Monday poured scorn on rumours circulating on social media which claimed to identify several possible causes of the outbreak.

Dr Mark Veitch said the experts themselves were still trying to come up with the exact cause, although some potential sources of the infection that have affected the North West Regional Hospital were readily apparent.

The state’s first coronavirus death, a woman in her 80s, was recorded at the North West Regional Hospital on March 30. The third, a man in his 80s died on April 7.

“We know that the first person managed at the hospital with the coronavirus infection was a person from Ruby Princess cruise who sadly died, as did another person from the Ruby Princess a week or so later, so that’s obviously one of our strongest leads to the source of infection,” he said.

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Two staff members at the North West Regional Hospital tested positive on April 3, and one more the day after. There are now 42 staff and eight patients with positive test results, as well as 10 other contacts.

“The movement of those people, when they worked, when they were admitted to hospital, is being plotted and worked out through our epidemiologists.

“They’ll be looking for links between patients and staff to look for the mechanism of how it appears to have spread person to person over the last couple of weeks.

Premier Peter Gutwein. Picture: ZAK SIMMONDS

Premier Peter Gutwein said he put no stock in rumours circulating online.

“There’s a bit of stuff floating around on social media,” he said.

“To be frank, I’ve never taken much notice of social media.

“The key thing here is we work through this.

“The contact tracking and tracing will determine how this has occurred and, importantly, what the epicentre of it is.

“We have a team that is working in public health, in concert with the THS, to work through this.”