Data which reveals the Tasmanian local government areas people with COVID-19 reside in is expected to be made public next week, but Labor and the Greens have raised concerns about the time it has taken for the information to be released.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Tasmania is the only Australian state which has kept the detailed location data secret.
Coronavirus: All the latest updates on COVID-19 for Tasmania
On Friday Public Health director Dr Mark Veitch apologised and said data was expected to be released next week.
"I'm sorry we haven't quite got that out to the point of a public dashboard at the local government level, but the public health epidemiology group has been working on the data and it's not very far off," Dr Veitch said.
Labor leader Rebecca White said she would have liked to have seen the data released earlier.
"We understand public health authorities are extremely busy dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and the delay in providing a breakdown of information about cases suggests the government needs to increase the number of staff working on this so the public can have access to more timely information," Ms White said.
Ms White said Labor wanted to see postcodes of confirmed cases made public, but understood the government was "balancing transparency with legitimate privacy concerns".
In other news:
Greens health spokeswoman Dr Rosalie Woodruff said Public Health would have always known the location of confirmed cases.
"We welcome the data being made available, but we don't understand the reasons for it being delayed for so much longer than other states," Dr Woodruff said. "The director didn't provide a reason for this."
- Our COVID-19 news articles relating to public health and safety are free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.