Those packing and stocking supermarkets, grocery stores, butchers, bakeries, greengrocers, chemists and pharmacies were among the workers listed by Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein on Thursday.

They join healthcare and aged-care workers, who can already apply for the close contact exemption, which allows staff classified as close contacts to return to work if they are asymptomatic and continue to return negative rapid antigen tests.

According to the premier, to qualify for the exemptions, employers will need to prove that absenteeism - caused by current close contact isolation measures - is having a critical impact on the "services or provision of services that they provide".

"This is only for critical workers in the nominated industry sectors - this is not a free-for-all," he added.

Workers in the hospitality sector were notably absent from the new list of businesses able to apply for exemptions. This is despite current isolation measures causing a severe staffing issue for many hospitality venues around the state. Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey, called the new additions to the exemption list "a welcome first step".

"The reality is that Tasmania will have to match that eventually and further ease the rules because businesses simply can't cope at the moment," he added.

However, director of Public Health Mark Veitch didn't rule out considering more sectors in the near future.

"We are looking at other parts of the Tasmanian workforce [...] and how an exemption process might apply - perhaps quite soon - to an additional tranche of operations," he said.