Victorians will be blocked from entering Tasmania from Thursday until further notice.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The rule imposed by Premier Peter Gutwein will extend to anyone who has been in Victoria over the past 14 days.
"If you're from Victoria, please don't come to Tasmania," he said on Wednesday.
"If you do come to Tasmania and you haven't been granted an exemption then we will send you home."
IN OTHER NEWS:
Tasmanians returning from the state will be the only exemption so long as they go into quarantine in a hotel managed by the government, he said on Wednesday.
Mr Gutwein said this would apply to fly-in, fly-out workers.
He said businesses and organisations that sought essential workers from Victoria would need to demonstrate that the expertise could not be recruited from any other state.
Mr Gutwein said applications for exemptions on compassionate grounds were unlikely to be granted.
He said people coming to Tasmania from other states would be allowed to move through Melbourne Airport provided they did not leave the airport at any time.
Mr Gutwein will provide an update on border restrictions for all states and territories besides Victoria on Friday.
He said the state was well-prepared in the event of new coronavirus cases in Tasmania.
"We will see positive cases in Tasmania," Mr Gutwein said.
"Tasmanians should remain well aware and vigilant.
"The events of the past week have underlined just how infectious this disease is."
Mr Gutwein said 3800 coronavirus tests had been taken statewide over the past week, including 550 over the most recent 24-hour period.
He said there had been almost 55,000 tests taken since testing started.
Public Health director Mark Veitch said the health service was working on contact tracing strategies for when new cases emerged.
He said the service believed they had achieved the right settings in regards to social mixing and closer densities in venues.
"We certainly have to be very careful before we relax any measures further," Dr Veitch said.
"I think it is probable that there is no coronavirus in Tasmania or exceptionally little coronavirus in Tasmania.
Labor leader Rebecca White said there would still be movement across the state borders which needed to be backed by appropriate safeguards.
"Tasmanians have anxiously watched the situation unfolding in Victoria," she said. "With our own outbreak in the North West still fresh in people's minds, we know we can't afford to import COVID."
Greens health spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said Mr Gutwein's new announcement on restrictions was appropriate.
"The outbreak in Victoria does remind us in Tasmania how close we could be to something here as well if we aren't vigilant until a vaccine arrives," she said.
What do you think? Send us a letter to the editor:
