Health workers had until November 1 to either get vaccinated, provide evidence of a booking or have an exemption as part of a broad mandate covering the public system.

State health commander Kathrine Morgan-Wicks said the department had been carrying out dismissals as a result.

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"We've terminated over 100 staff in relation to non-compliance through this process, noting that it's a failure to comply with a legal public health direction," she said.

The department is continuing to work with others who have returned from leave without being vaccinated, Ms Morgan-Wicks said.

"We're probably down to around 30 or so staff that we are continuing to deal with," she said.

"Noting that, when we set hard dates or deadlines, we also have staff that were for example off on maternity leave or on long pre-approved leave.

"We have been working through each of those as they return back to work to make sure that they're vaccinated."

The Department of Health is considering upgrading the Launceston General Hospital and Royal Hobart Hospital to level 3 COVID escalation.

An announcement is expected to be made on Friday afternoon.

There are 163 COVID-positive public healthcare workers, and 217 close contacts, all of whom cannot work.

Ms Morgan-Wicks said this is causing "increased operational pressure in our hospitals", including increasing wait times in emergency departments and impacts on elective surgery.

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"Importantly, I should note that we have moved up and down in these escalation levels over time since December, and we will reduce these escalation levels if we move to escalation level 3 today," she said.

"I am just waiting for advice from the regional health emergency management team on that, that we will move down when it is safe to do so."

Increasing the escalation levels for the hospitals would result in "some reconfiguration of services", Ms Morgan-Wicks said.

The hospitals moved to level 2 in mid-March, which resulted in restrictions on unvaccinated visitors and limits to support people in emergency departments.

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