Total number of Covid cases in Tasmania approaches 200

Tasmanians could have more personal responsibility in Covid-19 contact tracing as the government considers removing low-risk locations from its list of exposure sites. LATEST >>

TASMANIANS could have more responsibility in contact tracing to slow the spread of Covid as the government considers removing low-risk locations from its list of exposure sites.

Premier Peter Gutwein said national advice was being developed on whether low-risk or casual exposure sites should be listed.

“I think many of you would be aware that there’ve been some concerns raised about low-risk settings especially where there was no need to take any action if you’d been there, other than to monitor for symptoms,” Mr Gutwein said.

“I’d make the point we should all be monitoring for symptoms.”

Premier Peter Gutwein at Monday’s Covid update. Picture: Linda Higginson

Public Health director Mark Veitch said while cases weren’t nearly as high as New South Wales, they were expected to increase, as were the number of casual contacts.

“There can be dozens or sometimes even a hundred casual contacts when you look at someone’s movements, and there can be even more low-risk contacts, people who have moved in the general space where people have been,” Dr Veitch said.

“When you start thinking of case numbers in the hundred or thousand a day, it’s pretty clear if you reach out to all the casual contacts of all of those cases and require them to be tested or limit their movements, you very quickly have an effect on a very large proportion of the Tasmania population.

Dr Veitch said he was confident Tasmanians could be trusted to inform those they’d been in contact with should they test positive.

“Each one of those cases can’t possibly be managed individually by Public Health people,” he said.

“For the time being, everyone will still be contacted by Public Health, but the priority settings will be conducted first.”

Director of Public Health Mark Veitch. Picture: Linda Higginson

The state government is also considering whether rapid antigen tests could be used when visitors arrive in Tasmania.

Meanwhile, it’s been revealed 64 staff at the Royal Hobart Hospital have tested negative to Covid after a positive case was confirmed on Christmas Eve.

The staff member had worked on the oncology ward.

Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff said 18 patients have tested negative.

“The focus of the response has been assessing the situation and limiting any risk to staff or patients,” Mr Rockliff said.

“The Royal Hobart hospital stood up an incident management team which has prioritised testing of staff and patients who may have been exposed to the positive case.”

Tasmania had 44 new cases in the 24 hours until 8pm on Sunday, with 160 active cases.

December 27, 2.40pm: RAPID antigen testing could be used to provide the results needed before travelling and to quickly see if workers in Tasmania’s hospitals and nursing homes are infected with Covid-19.

Premier Peter Gutwein said using the rapid testing kits to reduce queues at testing centres could give fast results to workers in high-risk settings such as hospitals.

Mr Gutwein said the vast majority of the 194 cases in Tasmania had experienced mild symptoms.

“Early studies and lived experience show the new variant of the virus is highly transmissible but not leading to the level of hospitalisations linked with other strains,” Mr Gutwein said.

Premier Peter Gutwein says the government is considering introducing rapid antigen testing at testing sites. Picture: Chris Kidd

Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff said all patients who came in contact with an infected worker at the Royal Hobart Hospital are being treated as close contacts. All 18 tested patients have returned negative results.

There are 64 RHH workers being managed as casual contacts and can keep working wearing full PPE and tested five days after their exposure.

Mr Gutwein said the government’s Covid-19 tracking and reporting systems are working and any delays in listing exposure sites were due to the accurate tracking and tracing needed to be undertaken to define an infected person’s movements.

December 27, 1.40pm: THE state government has been slammed for its “tardy” publication of Covid-19 exposure sites as more flights, pubs, restaurants and tourism businesses join the now extensive list.

A new list of exposure sites were published on Boxing Day. The dates when people were exposed went back as far as December 20.

Acting Labor leader Anita Dow said the week-long lag was both concerning and unacceptable while Greens Leader Cassy O’Connor said there was a sense among Tasmanians that Premier Peter Gutwein had opened the floodgates and walked away.

Tasmania has now recorded 194 Covid cases since the border reopened on December 15.

“Mr Gutwein also needs to tell Tasmanians if and when he had secured greater contact tracing capacity as the government had promised,” Ms Dow said.

“The Premier owes Tasmanians a thorough explanation because potentially Tasmanians who were at these sites but had no idea of potential exposure have been in the community.

“Tasmanians need more urgency, they need information to be distributed very quickly. The government should also be briefing all other political parties and that’s just not happening and must be remedied.”

Premier Peter Gutwein is under fire over the slow update speed of the state’s Covid exposure sites list. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Ms O’Connor said Mr Gutwein should “hang his head in shame” over the slow notification to Tasmanians she said were scared, angry and feeling abandoned.

Greens health spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said the Premier had assured Tasmanians the state was super-prepared.

“But the system was falling apart a week after the borders reopened,” she said.

“We were safe and protected but now we are exposed and people are not being made aware in real time if they have been somewhere where they might have contracted the virus.”

The latest list of exposure sites can be found at coronavirus.tas.gov.au

December 27, noon: TASMANIA has recorded 35 new Covid-19 cases taking the total number of active cases in the state to 194.

Most of those infected with the virus are being treated through Covid@home with 45 in a community case management facility and one is in hospital.

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Premier Peter Gutwein and Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff will provide a coronavirus update at 2pm today.