Premier Peter Gutwein confident Tasmania’s cruise ship ban was crucial to reducing virus threat

The Premier is confident the Government’s border protection measures – including an early ban on cruise ships docking – have put the state in a good position.

TASMANIAN Premier Peter Gutwein says he is confident the coronavirus threat posed by former cruise ship passengers returning to the state has been managed.

The state’s Public Health Department has confirmed that about half of the state’s 80confirmed cases of coronavirus are linked to various cruise ships, including 17 of them to the Ruby Princess.

Tasmania’s two coronavirus deaths, an elderly man in Hobart and an elderly woman in Burnie, were both passengers on the Ruby Princess, which has been linked to hundreds of cases and at least seven deaths nationwide.

The Ruby Princess docked in Sydney on March 19, four days after Mr Gutwein made an Australia-first announcement banning cruise ships from docking in Tasmania.

All non-essential travellers returning to Tasmania have been required to self-quarantine for 14 days since midnight on Friday, March 20.

That was upgraded a week ago (from midnight March 29), with travellers required to stay in government-run isolation centres.

The two people who have dies from coronavirus in Tasmania were both passengers on the Ruby Princess cruise ship. Picture: 7News

Mr Gutwein said more than 200 former cruise ship passengers had been through Tasmania’s quarantine processes after disembarking interstate and he was confident the Government’s relatively swift border protection measures had put the state in a good position.

“Whilst we’ve had to deal with the challenge of cruise ship passengers here in the state, I think the self-isolation rules we put in place and now, the very strict rules in terms of people having to spend time in a government-operated facility if they are entering the state, will stand us in good stead going forward,” Mr Gutwein said.

“It’s a problem that we’ve managed and I think, when we look back, one of the most important moves throughout this was that shortly after putting the cruise ship ban on that we then strengthened our borders and again, we moved faster than the rest of the country.”

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

Mr Gutwein said his decision to ban cruise ships on March 15 was made to protect Tasmanians and ensure the health system was not overrun by those seeking a safe haven.

“It was very obvious to me that, one, people were concerned about them [cruise ships] and that, two, I didn’t want to have the risk of people who had travelled internationally entering Tasmania,” Mr Gutwein said.

“Nor did I want the risk of a cruise ship having all of its passengers want to remain in Tasmania because it was safe, that would put pressure on our health system, so that was why I moved and we put the ban on cruise ships.”

Mr Gutwein said he intended to write to the families of the two Tasmanians who had died of COVID-19 after travelling on the Ruby Princess.

“I haven’t been in touch and it’s something I will certainly do. My intention is that I will write to them. I have had one family reach out and I’ve passed back a personal message to them,” he said.