Tasmania's redefinition of a close contact is illogical given the highly transmissible nature of Omicron, Australian Medical Association state president Helen McArdle said.
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Before the change, a close contact was considered to be a person who had spent 15 minutes near a person infected with COVID-19.
South Australia will continue to classify a close contact this way while in Western Australia, a close contact will anyone who has had face-to-face contact with a COVID case or shared an enclosed space with the case for any amount of time.
For other jurisdictions like Tasmania, a close contact is now somebody who has spent four hours in the same household or accommodation as a COVID case.
Dr McArdle said it appeared the definition of a close contact had been changed due to the sheer number of exposure sites and overwhelmed contact tracers.
She said the shift towards more reliance on rapid antigen tests to take pressure off PCR testing sites was a good move.
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Dr McArdle said RATs had 80 per cent reliance and false negatives could still be returned from PCR tests depending on when the test was taken and the technique used.
The state recorded 137 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the number of active cases to 520.
Three people were hospitalised due to the virus this week.
Dr McArdle said more hospitalisations were expected.
"If we start to get hundreds and thousands of cases, then there will be inevitably some people ending up in hospital and in ICU," she said.
Dr McArdle said COVID was out in the Tasmanian community and for protection people should take note of social distancing and hand hygiene.
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Greens health spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said the decision to cancel the requirement for negative PCR tests for Tasmanian visitors meant more COVID cases would be imported into the state.
"Peter Gutwein should be straight with Tasmanians about the impact his changes to testing requirements and Omicron's obvious community transmission will have," she said.
"He should release the up-to-date modelling on which he made his dangerous decision to not only open the borders, but back in the Prime Minister at national cabinet yesterday."
Acting Labor leader Anita Dow said the definition of a close contact had consequences for the health system, the community and the economy.
She said now the state's borders were open, transparency around decisions to do with COVID was vital.
Government minister Guy Barnett said the government had a clear plan to deal with COVID-19 cases in the state and that it was well prepared to switch to a greater reliance on rapid antigen tests.
He said the government would not stray from advice from the state's Public Health Services, though would not elaborate on the advice received in relation to changes regarding testing and close contact parameters.
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Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
