Premier Peter Gutwein to announce easing of border restrictions on Friday
Premier Peter Gutwein will unveil how Tasmania will ease border restrictions as concerns remain about how Tasmania’s health system will cope. LATEST HERE >>
Tasmania
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PREMIER Peter Gutwein will reveal the details of his plan to reopen Tasmania to interstate travel on Friday.
Mr Gutwein has pledged to release the Kirby Institute modelling the government commissioned to underpin the plan to remove travel restrictions.
Tasmania is expected to reach the government target of 90 per cent of those aged over 16 being full vaccinated for Covid-19 by December 1.
Liberal Minister Michael Ferguson said the Premier, cabinet and public health officials had been working hard on the plan.
“It takes account of the great success that we’ve been achieving here in Tasmania around vaccination, with 70 per cent of Tasmanians, double vaccinated and more than 85 per cent of people over 16 at least with one vaccine. These are very positive signs.
“Tasmania is very close to being ready for a staged reopening and the way that safe a way that supports our tourism and hospitality industries, a way that will allow families to be reunited.
“So the planning is been very effective.
“The premier of course, has been careful to take advice not only from Tasmania’s public health, but also the extra modelling and advice on that modelling from the Kirby Institute.”
Mr Ferguson said a return to a more normal social and economic life was underwritten by the success of the state’s vaccination program.
Federal Labor member for Franklin Julie Collins said the federal government was squibbing on the funding Tasmania needed to safely reopens.
“What we’re hearing from our local community is people’s concern about our hospital and our health system here in Tasmania. How is it going to cope?
“From people out and about in the local community, to our health professionals, everybody is saying this is going to be critical for Tasmania and our reopening plans.
“We know that every state and territory has written to Scott Morrison saying we need more help.”
“We need to have reassurance that our hospital and our health system is going to be able to cope when the state reopens its borders to other states and territories.”
Mr Morrison rejected the states’ plea for more health funding earlier this months as “shakedown politics”.
Calls for vax to be made mandatory for all Tasmanian MPs
COVID-19 vaccines should be mandatory for members of parliament, Labor says.
The leaders of opposition business in both houses have written to Speaker Mark Shelton and Legislative Council President Craig Farrell asking for the vaccine be made mandatory to ensure the safety and continuity of parliament.
Dean Winter and Sarah Lovell say that with three parliamentary sitting weeks and much important parliamentary business remaining it was important to make sure there were no disruptions.
“The Opposition understands the Government has a number of Bills it needs to have finalised
before the end of the year. It is important that the parliament is able to sit safely,” they wrote.
“Given the imminent threat of COVID-19 entering Tasmania, it is imperative that Members
reduce the health risks to each other and Parliamentary staff; and mitigate, as far as possible,
risks that could prevent parliament from being able to sit. It is also important that we set an
example to the rest of the Tasmanian community.”
They confirmed all Labor members had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Premier Peter Gutwein was asked last week if all Liberal MP have been jabbed.
He said he hadn’t asked.
“Can I just make the point. We haven’t mandated members of parliament need to have the vaccination. People will make good choices, I am sure,” he said.
“I’m certainly making it very clear that I would expect members of parliament to be vaccinated. I would hope that they would make that choice.”
A government spokesman on Tuesday confirmed all Liberal MPs had been vaccinated.
Mr Gutwein was vaccinated in April.
The state government has mandated that all health care workers and all others who work in health care settings be vaccinated by the end of the month.
Call to crack down on unauthorised arrivals
THE state government should seek to have biosecurity officers stationed in interstate jurisdictions to ensure travellers don’t enter Tasmania without the proper authorisation, the Opposition says.
But Premier Peter Gutwein has dismissed the idea, saying there is no legal scope to do so.
Speaking in Launceston on Sunday, Labor Treasury spokesman Shane Broad said there needed to be a thorough investigation into how a 31-year-old NSW man was able to enter Tasmania without the correct documentation and subsequently escape hotel quarantine in Hobart.
The man, who later tested positive to the Delta strain of Covid-19, was in the Bridgewater community for about 18 hours before police tracked him down and took him to quarantine at the Fountainside Hotel.
His actions prompted Mr Gutwein to announce a snap three-day lockdown on Friday, bringing much of the state to a standstill. The lockdown is due to end at 6pm on Monday.
“First of all, this person got on a plane without a G2G pass,” Dr Broad said.
“Secondly, he walked out of hotel quarantine.
“And then after that, nobody realised he’d gone for the best part of a day.
“There’s a lot of problems there that we need to be looking at. The government, I think, needs to be thinking about whether we’ve got the resources we need in hotel quarantine.”
Dr Broad said the government should work with other states and territories to make sure people do not come to Tasmania without a G2G pass.
“We’ve already got biosecurity staff at the port in Melbourne,” he said.
“We could extend that to the Melbourne Airport and then get someone in Sydney.
“There (are) jurisdictional issues where we can’t make Victoria or New South Wales do what we want, we can’t demand them (to do what we want) – but we can work with them, we can negotiate.”
However, Mr Gutwein said securing such an outcome would be difficult.
“Lawfully, our reach extends to the Tasmanian boundary, to the Tasmanian border,” he said. “We have no lawful role to play in Victoria or New South Wales.
“So what we have been doing is ensuring that at those airports people are provided with information in terms of what they need to enter Tasmania.”
Mr Gutwein said the State Control Centre was investigating the hotel quarantine breach, noting that the NSW man could have escaped in only one of two ways – via the door or the window of his room.
“We’re looking into it, and if there’s further details, we will provide you with them,” he said.
‘We could come out of this quickly’: Premier on lockdown
Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein says with another day of no new virus cases and record testing and vaccination rates, it’s likely the south’s snap three-day lockdown will end as planned at 6pm Monday.
“We couldn’t be in a better position, as it stands today, in terms of the information that we’re receiving both in terms of the number of tests that are occurring but also very pleasing is the fact that we’re not seeing any more positive cases at this time,” Mr Gutwein said.
“I would hope that we could come out of this quickly.”
Mr Gutwein said investigations were continuing on how a 31-year-old NSW man was able to leave hotel quarantine at Hobart’s Travelodge, travel to Bridgewater and attend a local Woolworths and community park.
“In terms of this breach, I’ve explained very clearly what has occurred and that is currently being looked at by the State Control Centre,” the premier said.
“If they left out the door, then the only opportunity would have been when the security guard on that particular floor was changing out of their PPE.
“There are only two options here. Breaches in other jurisdictions have largely occurred as a result of the virus leaving the facility as a result of a PPE breach.
“The challenges that we have faced in terms of hotel quarantine have largely not been within the domestic circumstance.
“In terms of security and CCTV, we’ve already increased the level of security and as I’ve indicated any gaps in terms of CCTV have been improved as well.”
No new cases of Covid were recorded overnight despite bumper numbers of Tasmanians getting tested as the state’s south in the midst of a three-day snap lockdown.
“Can I just start by thanking Tasmanians for working through this difficult period with us,” Mr Gutwein said.
“There are no further positive cases as of this morning which is very welcome news.”
There have been 1769 tests in the past 24 hours.
“I do want to say that in particular testing continues to be high in the target areas,” Mr Gutwein said.
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There have been 359 tests in Gagebrook, the DEC nearly 250 tests and 733 tests at MacQ Point yesterday.
“Yesterday in our state clinics, more than 2000 vaccinations were provided,” the premier said.
“Testing was very strong yesterday.”
Tasmania is now sitting at around 83.5 per cent first dose vaccination and 68.4 per cent are fully vaccinated, expecting to hit 70% fully vaccination in coming days.
“Keep getting vaccinated. It is our best defence against Covid,” Mr Gutwein said.
Mr Gutwein said more than 1000 vehicles have been checked and there have been around 90 that have been turned around, with 16 infringement notices issued and two arrests.
He also gave an update on schools in southern Tasmania on Monday.
“Students should not attend school unless they are the child of an essential worker or they can’t be supported at home,” Mr Gutwein said.
“I want to encourage Tasmanians to continue getting tested and importantly continue getting vaccinated.”
“I hope that we can see similar numbers today.”
“We’re past the halfway mark.”
“We need to remain disciplined. We need to remain responsible.”
Public Health Director Dr Mark Veitch said they had currently identified 168 primary close contacts. These comprise people who were at the Bridgewater Woolworths and people who were on the same flight as the Covid-positive man, listed in our exposure sites.
“Of those 168, we have 95 tests back that are negative and we will get the remainder of those tests back today and possibly some tomorrow,” Dr Veitch said.
“The people who are most at risk are the household and household-like contacts. There’s 15 of them and 11 of them have tested negative and we’re expecting the results for the others today.”
Dr Veitch said authorities had identified no new exposure sites.
“It’s a short lockdown with a focus on ensuring that we do thorough contact tracing,” he said.
“We’ll obviously be taking into account the info that we gather today and first thing tomorrow … to provide the right guidance as to what happens after 6pm tomorrow night.
“We’ve not identified any cases but we still have around half the primary close contacts.”
On
We will look at a number of factors if we get a positive. It will depend if it’s a close contact of that person or a remote contact of that person.
You can see if it’s a close contact that’s not entirely surprising if we might get a case amongst them. If they’re a more remote contact … someone who had a very fleeting encounter with the man, that will be of greater concern.
I’m not aware that he’s at any clinical risk from his illness. But I don’t have an up-to-date clinical report on him.
State Health Secretary Kathrine Morgan-Wicks said they were “throwing everything that we’ve got” at increasing vaccination numbers this weekend.
“It’s assisting our push towards that 90 per cent vaccination rate,” Ms Morgan-Wicks said.
“We haven’t changed our dates yet in terms of our modelling for the 90 per cent. We want to see how we are actually going through this lockdown period and we’ll have more to say on that this week.”
She said it was “really pleasing” to see those record levels of Tasmanians getting tested.
“We do really need to make sure that that it is targeted testing and that we are getting testing into the postcodes in areas which we’re concerned (about),” Ms Morgan-Wicks said.
“Let’s use today where people are at home, they can’t do any other activities, if you’re unvaccinated please come forward and get vaccinated.”
Tasmania Police Deputy Commissioner Donna Adams confirmed a male was arrested in the northern suburbs on Friday night for “unrelated matter” during lockdown.
“It was identified that this male had a gathering which was outside the public health restrictions,” she said.
“The person was fined in relation to that breach $778.50.”
Another man was arrested in Kingston for not wearing a mask and refusing to wear a mask when advised to do so by police.
“He then became abusive and he was arrested,” Dep Comm Adams said.
“This particular individual will go through the courts and so that’s a matter for the magistrate.
“Three individuals (were identified) failing to comply with a mask requirement. And those three individuals received a caution.”
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