Rumours a party involving health workers caused the Burnie coronavirus outbreak are baseless and appalling, a union official says.
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"To have all the rumours swirling around is completely unfair and disrespectful," Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Tasmanian branch secretary Emily Shepherd said on Tuesday.
Coronavirus: All the latest updates on COVID-19 for Tasmania
She said one member had considered going public about the distress it was causing workers, but decided not to, worrying "it will be used as another avenue to hate us".
The development follows reports of health workers being abused in public about allegedly spreading the virus.
"We're being attacked in supermarkets," Ms Shepherd said.
She said health workers were being vilified about the Burnie outbreak.
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The Burnie public and private hospitals were closed on Monday to allow a "deep clean" and staff were quarantined, along with family members.
As of Sunday, 72 of the state's 144 coronavirus cases were linked to the North-West, and 60 of those to the outbreak at the neighbouring hospitals.
Ms Shepherd said members the union had.spoken to were at a loss to understand where the rumours came from, and none of them knew of any such party.
She said they were "appalled unfounded rumours have been given legs in the media".
Australia's chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, added fuel to the rumour when he suggested an "illegal dinner party" involving medical workers was behind the Burnie outbreak while he was talking during a video conference with New Zealand officials.
Premier Peter Gutwein said Professor Murphy was commenting on a rumour.
Mr Gutwein said contact tracing had not uncovered the alleged party, although he had asked police to investigate because it was a serious allegation.
" ... I am certain that there are many hard working health professionals on the North-West Coast who feel that their reputation is being maligned," Mr Gutwein said.
Professor Murphy later said he had now been informed the contact tracing had not confirmed such a dinner party took place.
Tasmanian Greens health spokesperson Rosalie Woodruff, an epidemiologist, said Tasmanians deserved full transparency about the North-West outbreak.
"Clearly, something went wrong in the North West Regional Hospital and people's lives have been seriously affected," Dr Woodruff said.
"The results of the epidemiological investigation are needed to understand how such a large disease outbreak occurred in a hospital setting.
"We were pleased to hear the Health Minister commit to making the results of the North-West outbreak investigation publicly available, and urge her to do this as soon as it is complete.
"People need to understand how such a large outbreak happened at the North West Regional and North West Private hospitals to regain confidence in their hospital system."
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