Travellers are being released from hotel lockdown in Tasmania as 14 day isolation ends

Care packages and glimpses of his wife from his hotel room window have lifted the spirits of a Hobart man in quarantine, which is almost at an end.

Lee Sargent who is in quarantine at the Travelodge Hotel at the Hobart Airport. Picture Chris Kidd

QUARANTINED traveller Lee Sargent’s priorities on his release tomorrow will be getting a takeaway coffee and going for a walk.

“The weather can be as awful as it wants to be on that day, it will still be a wonderful day,” Mr Sargent said.

A first-floor room at the Hobart Airport Travelodge Hotel has been home to Mr Sargent since he arrived back from Brisbane on April 1.

A couple of flight cancellations caused the 42-year-old project manager to arrive in the state after the tough hotel quarantine rule came into effect.

“I was trying to get home to my wife. We were actually in the process of moving down here. She’s been already down here for about a year and I was finally joining her,” Mr Sargent said.

During his lockdown, Mr Sargent has been grateful for care packages and glimpses of his wife through the window. “Every couple of days she will drop by and we talk on the phone 10 metres away from each other. It’s been great to see her,” he said.

Mr Sargent said while he agreed with the rationale behind the strict quarantine measures, it had been unnerving when Tasmania Police officers boarded his aircraft soon after touchdown in Hobart.

After police explained the hotel quarantine policy, passengers were processed by biosecurity before boarding a bus on the tarmac.

When they arrived at the hotel, passengers were asked to leave the bus two at a time.

They were then escorted to their rooms by police.

“It was a bit rough for the first couple of days. Communities Tasmania has been doing a really good job of trying to be sympathetic,” Mr Sargent said.

“I’m an illustrator for a hobby, and I managed to bring a fair amount of art supplies, so I fill my day with that.”