State’s North ground zero for community transmission

Health authorities will be testing more people in the North as they struggle to find transmission origins for two coronavirus patients.

ANYONE in the Devonport area suffering respiratory issues is being tested for coronavirus as health authorities work to determine if the region is the first place in Tasmania where community transmission has occurred.

The North-West recorded the state’s first coronavirus death on Sunday – a woman in her 80s who had been a passenger on the Ruby Princess cruise ship.

Devonport Mayor Annette Rockliff said the woman’s death in the North West Regional Hospital had brought home the seriousness of the pandemic and that Tasmania was not immune to the tragedy unfolding across the world.

“The news was a game changer for Tasmanians I think,” Cr Rockliff said.

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“Most people in the Devonport area appear to be doing the right thing so the new rules were bought into place. I myself have not been out and about much but the feedback I am getting is that public places are very quiet and people are being respectful of others’ space.”

Police speak to someone in the Devonport Mall. Picture: HELEN KEMPTON

The city’s usually busy Rooke St mall was almost empty yesterday except for a small group of people Tasmania Police officers encouraged to move on reminding them of the new two-person gathering.

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Meanwhile health authorities are also working to find out how two other cases in the region – one a nurse at the Mersey Community Hospital – contracted the virus.

Seventeen people who had been in contact with the health worker have gone into quarantine and are undergoing assessment.

“Tracing back is an elaborate process and right now there is no likely source of infection identified. Both patients had contact with people who had been overseas and interstate but were not known to each other,” Director of Public Health Dr Mark Veitch said.

“We are looking for any link between the two but the infection could have arisen from entirely different sources.

“This doesn’t necessarily mean infection is spreading through the community in the Devonport area but there is a particular focus on testing there and we have expanded the testing criteria with anyone showing respiratory issues being tested to look more broadly for community infection.”

Burnie Mayor Steve Kons said the worst thing people could do in the North-West at this stage was not take the matter of isolation seriously.