Peter Gutwein,Premier
The Tasmanian Government's priority is to keep Tasmanians safe and secure as we respond to the COVID-19 risk across the country.
After another busy 24 hours for our contract tracers and testing teams all 1,248 laboratory tests have returned a negative result for COVID-19. This means that nearly 5,000 tests have returned negative results since a man tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday after spending time in hotel quarantine in Tasmania.
This is welcome news and I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank everyone in our labs, testing facilities and contact tracing teams who are working hard to keep our community safe.
Over the next few days, further test results will continue to come in and we'll keep Tasmanians informed of those results, but it's fair to say that we're hopeful that no further cases will be identified.
Tasmania also continues to manage its borders to keep Tasmanians safe, and in response to the Cairns and Yarrabah regions going into a three day lock down, Tasmania has immediately declared that these locations will be high risk level 2 from 4.00 pm today.
This means you can't come to Tasmania from these areas without approval from the Deputy State Controller and if you are approved you will need to quarantine in a suitable premises for 14 days.
While the lockdown of 11 South East Queensland LGAs will lift from 4pm today, Public Health will continue to monitor the situation closely and our border restrictions with those LGAs will remain in place for the time being.
However, based on public health advice, Tasmanians who are currently under a stay at home order after visiting one of those LGAs on or since 17 July will be able to resume their normal activities at 4pm today.
Our current border restrictions with New South Wales and Victoria remain in place. New South Wales continues to face a very serious situation, and our thoughts continue to be those impacted.
Victoria has also reported another 11 cases today and we hope the action that State is taking will help it get on top of its outbreak.
This reinforces why we can't get complacent here in Tasmania.
Please get vaccinated, cover your coughs and sneezes, wash and sanitise your hands regularly, maintain appropriate distancing, stay home if you're unwell and get tested – even if you have mild symptoms.
