Tasmania will open its borders for ‘safe travel bubbles’ with three other Australian states.

Premier Peter Gutwein made the announcement this afternoon.

It comes as the state’s first case of coronavirus for more than two months was confirmed on Monday, a young Tasmanian woman who had returned from Victoria.

Mr Gutwein said due to the majority of residents doing the right thing, Tasmania had become “one of the safest places in the world right now”.

He added in the public health’s view, South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia were “equally as safe”.

“After review by public health officials and considering a range of border safety restrictions we intend to create safe travel bubbles between those three states,” Mr Gutwein said.

“This will happen in two weeks’ time — from Friday, August 7.”

The premier said mandatory testing for essential workers travelling from Victoria and other “hot spots” would apply from July 31 at Tasmania’s airports and seaports.

“Anyone identified as being unwell or having symptoms will have to take a mandatory COVID test,” Mr Gutwein said.

“After testing, those people must remain in hotel or home quarantine until they receive the results of those tests. Refusal to have those tests will result in mandatory hotel quarantine or they will be directed to return home on next flight.”

Everyone coming to Tasmania must register to travel using G2G PASS.

This includes Tasmanian residents returning to the state and people wanting to travel under Essential Traveller status.

In terms of relaxing border restrictions with other states, Mr Gutwein said the government needed to “take a longer term view on relaxations”.

“I don’t see Victoria being opened up with Tasmania in the near future but we will continue to monitor on a weekly and monthly basis,” he said.

“With Queensland we need to take a position of caution.

“We will provide an update on the 7th August on possible times and dates to relax those states and territory (but we don’t see) Queensland, NSW or ACT (opening to Tasmania) any time before 14th August.”

Mr Gutwein said keeping Tasmanias safe remained his priority.

“Creating safe travel bubbles I think will be welcome, but we will step into this cautiously and carefully,” he said.

“I will not hesitate to act on public health advice to act on restrictions if needed. If we need to step back from these jurisdictions, public health can restrict a suburb, municipality or state within 30 minutes if necessary to keep Tasmanians safe.

“Our priority from day 1 is to keep Tasmania safe and secure. We went early, we went hard and applied tough border restrictions before other states.

“Tasmanians stayed homes to save lives. We’re one of the safest places in the world right now. But the virus is here to stay until we have a vaccine.”

Mr Gutwein said he wanted to ensure Tasmania didn’t “take a backwards step” with businesses having to undergo a second lockdown and closure period.

“Others like Victoria are in the fight of their life right now and reintroduced stay at home restrictions and have had to close down significant number of business,” he said.

“NSW also has community transmission, have closed businesses and today introduced further restrictions on public gathering sizes.”

Re-watch the Premier’s announcement below.

All the important changes

From 7 August 2020, there will be no quarantine requirement for Tasmanian residents and non-Tasmanian residents travelling from:

• South Australia (SA);
• Northern Territory (NT); and
• Western Australia (WA);

Public Health advice has identified that these jurisdictions have low to no risk as there are currently no outbreaks and low case numbers that are being managed.

From 7 August 2020, health screening at Tasmanian airports and ports will be conducted. This screening will involve a temperature check and answering health questions. These measures will be in place for arrivals on King and Flinders Island as well as mainland Tasmania.

Anyone demonstrating COVID-19 like symptoms will be encouraged to undertake a COVID-19 test and quarantine until the test results are known. Public Health Services will contact anyone who tests positive to discuss the next steps.

People travelling from these areas must not have spent time in affected regions (currently Victoria) or premises or New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) or Queensland (QLD) in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Tasmania.

Travellers who have spent time in affected regions (currently Victoria) or premises are only permitted to enter the State if they are a Tasmanian resident, or are permitted to enter as an Essential Traveller.

From 31 July 2020, Essential Travellers who have spent time in an affected region or premises in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Tasmania will be required to undertake a COVID-19 test on arrival.

People who have not spent time in affected regions or premises who want to enter Tasmania from August 7 will be able to apply from Wednesday, July 29.

Applications made prior to the required changes to the G2G PASS online system will be rejected and have to be resubmitted.