The Tasmanian government's decision not to fully close its borders to the COVID-stricken New South Wales is reasonable but comes with risks, an epidemiologist says.
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Scott Carver, of the University of Tasmania, said recognition of NSW's strong contact tracing record was evident in Tasmanian public health officials' border advice.
"Even though [NSW has] had quite a few cases over time, they've not had the big outbreaks," Dr Carver said. "And I guess this is the biggest load of cases they've had for a while."
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"So I think Tassie's response ... reflects that New South Wales has generally had pretty good track and trace programs and quarantine and isolation. They've always been relatively effective at that, given that they've got a very large population."
Tasmania has classified the Northern Beaches area of Sydney as high-risk and the Greater Sydney and Wollongong areas as medium-risk, while the rest of the state has been deemed low-risk. This means the Tasmanian border is effectively closed to about 70 per cent of the NSW population.
Anyone who has been in a high-risk area in the 14 days prior to their planned arrival in Tasmania is barred from entering the state, whereas anyone who has been in a medium-risk area is required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. People who have been in low-risk areas, meanwhile, are not required to quarantine.
Tasmania has also banned anyone who has been in one or more of nine high-risk sites in Victoria from entering the state.
On Sunday, NSW recorded 11 new coronavirus cases, eight of which were locally acquired. In Victoria, three new cases of community transmission were identified, all connected to the Black Rock cluster in Melbourne's south-east.
Dr Carver said the Tasmanian government and public health officials were being "very reasonable" in regards to their border-related decision-making, but noted there were risks involved with not raising the drawbridge to NSW entirely.
"The risks are they're relying on everybody's honesty [when entering Tasmania] about where they've travelled and that sort of thing," he said. "To the general public's credit, people, I think, have shown really great collective responsibility and want to honestly report those sorts of things, which has really helped see public health campaigns be as successful as they have been."
Labor leader Rebecca White on Sunday reiterated her call for Tasmania's border to be closed to all of NSW.
The risks are they're relying on everybody's honesty [when entering Tasmania] about where they've travelled and that sort of thing.
- Dr Scott Carver, epidemiologist
"The fact that we're still seeing cases recorded in NSW of community transmission of the virus is concerning and the government should be closing the border to New South Wales just like other states have done," she said.
"When you go hard and you go early, you have the best chance of getting on top of this."
Health Minister Sarah Courtney said on Saturday that the government would "not hesitate to take further action if we need to keep Tasmanians safe".
Tasmania's Public Health director Mark Veitch said public health officials were continuing to monitor the situations in both NSW and Victoria and were using the latest information to "assess the risk and make appropriate changes to advice and restrictions to protect the Tasmanian community".
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