Peter Gutwein,Premier
The health, safety and wellbeing of Tasmanians remains the Government’s number one priority.
We have taken a cautious and responsible approach to easing our border restrictions with other states and territories.
As a further sign of confidence that the COVID-19 situation is improving in South Australia (SA), Tasmania will re-open its borders to SA at 12.01am this Thursday 3 December.
This means that SA will be classified as a Low Risk Area from that time, with the exception of people who have been to certain premises or locations that have been identified by SA Health as posing high risk. These places will be specified by the Director of Public Health and further information will be released later today.
This is a significant milestone, which means for the first time in nine months Tasmania’s borders will be relaxed with all states and territories, as well as New Zealand.
As we continue to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, we must remain agile, and as I have said before, we will scale up and scale down swiftly in response to cases and outbreaks should they occur.
This is why we have our safeguards in place here in Tasmania, including contact tracing, COVID-safety plans, testing and rapid response capabilities.
We are delivering a free contact tracing app for venues to be able to use if they wish to move from paper based systems. This is not intended to replace current electronic collection methods which are already being used by a number of venues.
The “Check in TAS” App is ready to use from today, and is available on the Google-Play app store now, and is expected to be available on the Apple Store soon, with venue registration applications for a Check in TAS QR code having opened last week. Tasmanians can find the App by visiting: https://coronavirus.tas.gov.au/facts/important-community-updates
The App is currently available for use by restaurants, cafes and other retail food businesses and outlets. From the 15th of December a wider cohort of venues including, for example, places of worship, cinemas, entertainment venues, casinos, galleries and museums will also be required to keep details for the purposes of contact tracing.
I encourage Tasmanians to continue to keep following the rules, keep maintaining social distance where appropriate, cover your coughs and sneezes, observe the COVID restrictions and safety plans in place, stay home if you’re unwell, and don’t hesitate to get a test – even if it’s just a sniffle.
