Peter Gutwein,Premier
The health and safety of Tasmanians remains our number one priority as we continue through the transition phase of learning to live with COVID-19.
As part of this transition and in line with our commitment to review arrangements after one month of our borders reopening, from midnight tonight all vaccinated travellers will no longer be required to register their travel or to take a COVID-19 test prior to travelling.
This is based on public health advice and is part of our transition to living with COVID-19 and returning to a more normal way of life once this transition phase ends.
However, the current rules remain in place for those who are not vaccinated unless they have a valid medical exemption.
This means people who are not vaccinated must continue to register their travel on the Tas-E-Travel app, have a negative COVID-19 test prior to travelling (either a RAT within 24 hours prior or a PCR within 72 hours prior), and undertake a minimum of five days’ quarantine on arrival, along with producing a negative COVID-19 test on day five to leave quarantine.
While these rules will be reviewed in coming months, the evidence in other jurisdictions such as Queensland shows that unvaccinated people are up to 24 times more likely to end up in ICU than someone who is vaccinated.
This clearly shows the importance of being vaccinated, and that’s why we will continue to step down our COVID border safeguards in a sensible and responsible way, to ensure our health system can continue to cope.
This is a challenging time, but things will get better as we transition out of this phase and live with COVID-19 in our community in coming months.
I encourage Tasmanians to keep doing the little things as we continue through this period – keep up your COVID-safe behaviours, maintain good hygiene, stay home if you’re unwell, and if you’re due for your vaccination or a booster, then please turn up.
