People who have arrived in Tasmania from the Greater Brisbane area before 9am on Friday, January 8 are allowed to leave their required self-isolation.
This comes as Queensland has again not had any new cases for the third day in a row, and testing rates remain high.
Health Minister Sarah Courtney said advice received was that those who arrived into the state did not pose a risk.
More than 300 close contacts of the Queensland resident, who tested positive for the highly infectious UK COVID strain, were identified and tested for the strain.
Two-thirds of those close contacts tested negative, with the remaining results expected shortly.
Nobody in Tasmania who arrived prior to Friday, January 8 at 9am were identified as either a close or casual contact.
Health Minister Sarah Courtney said she thanked those affected for their care and patience.
"Those who have self-isolated and were here prior to 9am last Friday can now resume their normal activities," Ms Courtney said.
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People who arrived from the Greater Brisbane area after that time are required to remain in quarantine until further notice.
"Public health has recommended quarantine arrangements remain in place, with a review in 48 hours to determine a risk level," Ms Courtney said.
"This means those in hotel quarantine or at an approved suitable premises who have arrived from the Greater Brisbane area must remain there until public health advises they are comfortable to ease the risk level."
Ms Courtney advised that those who were in hotel quarantine would need to remain there at their own expense, with one exception.
"We recognise that the decision was made swiftly, and for those who came into the state before that date, or those who came in that 24 hours after, will not have to pay for their quarantine," Ms Courtney said.
"I'd like to recognise the efforts people have gone to, both here in Tasmania and in Queensland, to swiftly isolate.
"While things at this stage are looking promising in Queensland, we will continue to take public health advice and monitor the situation."
Public Health Director Mark Veitch said the news from Queensland was promising.
"We learnt last Friday morning that Queensland was implementing a lockdown of Greater Brisbane, and at that time we required of people who were in Tasmania but were in Queensland at the relevant time to follow a similar behaviour," Dr. Veitch said.
"The reason for the Queensland decision was to provide them time to busily complete contact tracing around the highly infectious case."
Dr Veitch said there were no calls to the public health hotline from people identifying themselves as being in the relevant high risk areas, but that "a couple of thousand" people had returned from the area.
He said the next 48 hours will see further if the swift lockdown was effective, and that public health would continue to monitor the situation before looking to change the risk level.
Dr Veitch said there were approximately 600 people who had returned to Tasmania from the impacted area since January 8, who were mostly in home quarantine.
There are currently 106 people in hotel quarantine who had arrived into the state from the Greater Brisbane area or from affected parts of New South Wales.
Situations in New South Wales and Victoria are still being monitored.
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Ebony Abblitt
Ebony Abblitt is a features writer at the Examiner in Launceston, with an interest in pets, politics and people. | ebony.abblitt@examiner.com.au
Ebony Abblitt is a features writer at the Examiner in Launceston, with an interest in pets, politics and people. | ebony.abblitt@examiner.com.au
