Tasmanian Premier clarifies detail around state's border closure

Mr Gutwein on Wednesday said the extension of the state's border closure by more than three months was to allow for more understanding on transmission of coronavirus across statelines and to allow the health system to be well-prepared for infection within Tasmania.

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"People should plan for the first of December," he said.

"But obviously, we have taken Public Health advice right through and if that advice is such that it would be safe to open to another jurisdiction before the first of December then we would do so.

"Likewise, if the circumstance in the country worsens, then obviously we would be taking advice of a different nature."

He said a safe jurisdiction was be defined as one which did not have widespread, or even any, community transmission of coronavirus.

Public Health director Mark Veitch said community transmission of coronavirus in Victoria, which started six weeks ago, had changed Tasmania's situation.

"Before that, we were travelling on a quite different trajectory in terms of the measures we would want to keep in place to protect Tasmanians," he said.

"But since the Victorian circumstances, it's changed the risks quite radically because of the relatively high level of coronavirus infection in our nearest neighbour."

Mr Gutwein said if the state had to be shutdown in a similar way as Victoria, it would cost the Tasmanian economy between $500 and $600 million.

Labor leader Rebecca White said the Premier's inconsistent comments around how long the borders would remain closed for were a cause for concern.

"People want to know what the plan is," she said.

"This chopping and changing is causing a lot of confusion."

She said the rules which did not require essential workers arriving from Victoria and COVID hotspots to isolate while waiting for the results of their mandatory COVID-19 test needed to be fixed by the government.

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