Tasmanians in Hobart and the state's south are waking to the first day of a snap three-day lockdown.
Key points:
- Supermarkets shelves have been emptied by panic buying customers, with one retailer rationing purchases
- Face masks must be worn outside the home, unless in exceptional circumstances
- Health advocates warn the sector won't cope if there is a widespread outbreak of COVID
The lockdown came into force at 6pm on Friday amid concerns a New South Wales man who escaped from hotel quarantine on Monday night spent 18 hours in the community before he was caught and tested positive to the Delta COVID variant on Tuesday afternoon.
Premier Peter Gutwein said the lockdown was necessary because the man was "not cooperating" with contact tracers.
"One of the things that we do not want to be in this state is either Sydney of Melbourne who acted too late in both instances when dealing with Delta," Mr Gutwein said.
He said the government would take "every step we can to ensure that the state doesn't have a Delta outbreak of scale that would impact on this community … before our vaccination rates are much higher".
The lockdown covers 12 Local Government Areas: Hobart, Glenorchy, Clarence, Kingborough, Brighton, Derwent Valley, Central Highlands, Southern Midlands, Sorell, Huon Valley, Tasman, and Glamorgan-Spring Bay.
Police will set up roadblocks and increase patrols in southern Tasmania.
Deputy Police Commissioner Donna Adams said Tasmanians would face consequences if they did not comply with lockdown requirements.
"Police will have a very high visibility presence over the next three days," she said.
"We will have people at the boundaries of the 12 local government areas and we'll also have a number of high visibility patrols throughout those local government areas."
Rumours of the lockdown sparked panic buying at Hobart supermarkets hours before the lockdown was officially announced.
In response, Coles introduced buying limits of two packs of toilet paper and two packs of face masks per customer in its Tasmanian stores.
No guarantee lockdown will end Monday
The 31-year-old New South Wales man whose actions have sparked the lockdown flew into Hobart on Monday night without a valid G2G pass and escaped quarantine before an acquaintance picked him up in a car.
Loading
Police found him at a home in Bridgewater, in Hobart's outer north, on Tuesday afternoon and he was taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital and tested for COVID before being escorted to the Fountainside Hotel in central Hobart.
What's within 5km of my home? See how the Hobart lockdown rules applyPublic Health contact tracers now know the man also spent time the Montrose Foreshore Community Park on Monday night, and at the Woolworths supermarket in Bridgewater on Tuesday.
Public Health director Mark Veitch said contact tracers had to scour hours of CCTV footage to confirm when he was at the supermarket, after getting a tip from a member of the public.
"We have been having difficulty getting clear, consistent and truthful information from the man and indeed from some of the contacts of the case we've got stories that don't disclose all of the information," he said.
Dr Veitch said Public Health also learned one of the man's close contacts breached home quarantine on Thursday night.
He said he could not guarantee the snap lockdown would end on Monday.
More will be known on Sunday after contact tracing information is assessed.
"I'm not going to predict whether this will only be a three-day lockdown," he said.
"I think there are some encouraging signs in that we haven't had any cases in secondary close contacts so far but we're getting an increasing number of contacts."
Premier Peter Gutwein described the man's behaviour as "outrageous".
Contact tracers have identified 39 primary close contacts and 19 casual contacts.
Seventeen of the close contacts have so far tested negative for COVID; all are in quarantine.
Lockdown gets health advocates backing but business groups concerned
The Australian Medical Association and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation have welcomed the lockdown.
"This short, sharp lockdown is not nice but necessary as an opportunity for public health to quickly and calmly reset following the arrival of a COVID positive case into Hobart on Tuesday and who has spent time in our community," said AMA Tasmania president Helen McArdle.
ANMF state secretary Emily Shepherd said the state's public hospitals would struggle to keep delivering normal services if there were a Delta outbreak.
"One of the worst possible results would be having a widespread outbreak due to the negligence of one individual, which will place additional strain on a healthcare system in Tasmania that is already strained and a health workforce that is already stretched to capacity," she said.
Business groups including the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Tasmanian Small Business Council and Master Builders Tasmania the lockdown would be a significant blow to their members.
In a joint statement with the Civil Contractors Federation they called for financial support for any businesses affected.
More information on the current state of restrictions can be found on the Tasmanian government's coronavirus website.
Loading form...
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiXmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIxLTEwLTE2L3dlZWtlbmQtb2YtY292aWQtbG9ja2Rvd24tYmVnaW5zLWZvci10YXNtYW5pYS8xMDA1NDM5MDDSAShodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTAwNTQzOTAw?oc=5
2021-10-15 18:36:03Z
52781938509229
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Tasmania wakes up to a weekend of lockdown after COVID breach - ABC News"
Post a Comment