However, it remains unclear what surgeries will be prioritised when restrictions are officially lifted from next week.

Coronavirus: All the latest updates on COVID-19 for Tasmania

Health Minister Sarah Courtney said access to surgeries would be based on patient and hospital impact.

But the Australian Medical Association has warned that surgeries must be clinically driven and only done when and where safe.

"This will be a gradual and progressive restart to our surgical program," Ms Courtney said.

"With regards to the choices around this, the final decisions on the category and the types of patients to be operated on, will remain at the discretion of our medical professionals.

"I would like to assure those Tasmanians who are on those waiting lists, that we are scrutinising those very closely and looking to make the best decisions to help Tasmanians."

The latest Health Dashboard statistics, current until the end of December, shows the state's waiting list for elective surgery has risen to 11,110.

This includes 754 category 1 patients, 4130 category 2 and 6226 category 3.

AMA state branch president John Burgess said unlike other states, Tasmania was still experiencing a healthcare and hospital crisis following the recent COVID-19 outbreak at the North West Regional Hospital.

"This has significantly damaged the capacity of our public and private hospitals in Tasmania to deliver emergency care, let alone elective care in the North-West," he said.

"The AMA nationally has been urging for elective surgery to be put back on the table, but in a safe and clinically determined timeframe.

"In Tasmania we are still dealing with a crisis in the North-West, that's profoundly impacting hospital capacity across the state.

"So our situation is not going to be same as Victoria or NSW over the course of the next month."

On Tuesday Prime Minister Scott Morisson announced restrictions on all non-urgent surgeries would be lifted nationally after the Anzac Day long weekend.

It comes almost a month after all non-urgent elective surgeries were put on hold, with the exception of category 1 and the most urgent category 2.

The decision was aimed at freeing up beds and health workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and to save resources including personal protective equipment.

Ms Courtney said it had been a difficult decision to make, but the government's objective was now aimed at getting the greatest benefit within the constrained environment.

"I'd like to assure people that are on our elective surgery waiting lists, that we are going to work through this as quickly as possible," she said.

"We want to be able to maximise the benefit to Tasmanians that these new rule changes allow."

Ms Courtney said the government had strategies in place to manage the ongoing risks associated with the North-West outbreak.

"As we work through the elective surgery pathways over the coming days and weeks, we will be looking at the geographic distribution as well as our private hospital capacity to make sure we are getting the benefit, as widespread as possible," she said.

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