The coronavirus pandemic has brought all sides of humanity into sharp focus, but most of all it has shown us how many in our community stepped up.

When the Australian Government asked us to stay home to stop the spread of coronavirus, the frontline workers kept going to work. They are doctors, nurses, pathologists, allied health professionals, medical administrators, paramedics, transport workers, police, cleaners, firefighters, SES volunteers, supermarket and retail staff, teachers, trades and construction workers, cafe and small business owners, defence personnel, postal workers, pharmacists and childcare workers.

While we worked from our home offices or kitchen tables, home-schooled our children, completed those DIY projects we've been putting off, binge-watched TV, discovered new hobbies, found new dishes we loved to cook and altered our exercise regime to work out at home, those essential workers kept up their shifts.

These people have looked after us while we're sick, provided our medication, checked on us at home, patrolled our roads, cleaned, fed us, taught our children, helped us shop for food in bulk so we could stay home and ensured the packages we ordered while self-isolating.

I know the sacrifice these frontline workers have made for the rest of us first hand - in my own family there are nurses, a doctor, a police officer, a paramedic and a teacher. At a time when it is likely my family members, their colleagues and other frontline workers wanted to be at home with their own families, they donned their uniforms and PPE and went to work to support all of us.

In addition, many others put their hands up to update essential skills from past careers so they could add their number to the essential workforce.

Not only have these frontline workers done their jobs, but they have been doing those jobs under more stressful circumstances than usual.

They needed to change the way they do those jobs to cope with social distancing requirements and protect their own, and our, safety. This includes wearing extra protective gear, operating behind perspex screens, keeping their distance as much as possible, scaling back business operations and dealing with customers and patients who are fearful of what the pandemic means and feeling the impact of restrictions.

Around our state, grateful Tasmanians have been making meals, sending messages of support via social media, buying coffee, drawing pictures, painting murals, volunteering, making PPE and doing much more to express their thanks for these workers.

Across Australia, and the world, others have united to do the same - thank you messages on billboards are filled with workers' smiling faces, free passage on toll roads, pop stars performing songs of thanks or special deliveries dropped at workers' doors.

Without these people who put their duty to us first and foremost, Tasmania would not be in the positive position it is now.

Our state has just a handful of active COVID-19 patients now, and there have been no new cases of infection for almost three weeks. However that picture could have been a very different one - Premier Peter Gutwein said modelling showed almost 90 per cent of Australians could have been infected with coronavirus if swift action had not been taken. Between the dedicated work of our frontline workers, and the patience of the Tasmanian public in adhering to the restrictions set by the state government, we have been able to limit the pandemic's impact.

As a result we will be able to spread our wings a little further this long weekend and celebrate the easing of restrictions with more of our friends and family. It should be noted that easing of restrictions is not a sign that we have beaten COVID-19, but an indication that our health system is better able to cope with any new cases that arrive as a result of less restrictions. It is now as important as it ever was to keep practising good hand hygiene, keep up social distancing when out in public and stay at home if you're feeling unwell.

And, if you haven't already, downloading the COVIDSafe app from Apple App Store or Google Play will help our health professionals contact trace and keep on top of any further spread of the virus.

Please enjoy your long weekend knowing all of our hard work is paying off, but also keep a special thought of thanks at the front of your mind for all of our frontline workers.

Without them our recovery from this pandemic would not be as swift, or as smooth.

Thank you.