Premier Peter Gutwein made the most significant commitment to the COVID National Plan yet, saying the state would continue in a push to open its borders once vaccination rates hit 80 per cent.
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Returning to his position as Premier after a week off sick, Mr Gutwein worked to wrest back control of the narrative abounding what open borders would mean to Tasmania.
"I want to put some context to reopening borders, just so people are clear," he said.
"I'm not going to allow plane loads of people with COVID to simply fly into the state ... this is not about just opening the door and saying 'they'll come and we'll deal with it', that's not the way the National Plan works.
"We're not going to open our borders at a time that's going to put our health at risk. What we're going to do, with the National Plan, is ensure we look carefully at those jurisdictions we'd be opening up to and importantly, if they have restrictions in place, ... then we will utilise our border restrictions as advised by public health."
He said a future of "open" borders would likely see hotspot areas, local government areas and broader regions with restrictions in place would see Tasmania "manage our borders appropriately".
Mr Gutwein's endorsement of the National Plan came in contrast to comments made by Public Health Director Mark Veitch and Health Commander Kathrine Morgan-Wicks on Friday.
Mr Gutwein himself conceded he would like to see vaccination rates "as high as we can [get them]", but reiterated his endorsement of the plan.
"I noted the comments of the State Health Commander and also Dr Veitch, who'd like to see vaccination rates above 90 per cent, I too share that goal, that ambition," he said.
But the National Plan works to 70 to 80 per cent and we'll continue to follow that.
- Premier Peter Gutwein
Mr Gutwein's comments came after a conversation in Tasmania had developed about the impact the plan would have on the state.
Based off modelling done by the Doherty Institute, the plan itself conceded more work needed to be done to adapt the forecasts to differing states, and differing health system capacities.
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