Peter Gutwein,Premier
Tasmania has maintained a proactive, responsive approach to keep on top of COVID-19 and support the community's health and wellbeing. However, the Delta strain is challenging communities right across Australia's Eastern seaboard, creating serious health and economic challenges.
We must take the opportunity to learn from the challenges faced by New South Wales, as well as Victoria and Queensland and continue to take a proactive approach to keep Tasmanians safe.
That's why from today, a 4 point Delta Shield Plan will be put into place which focuses on:
- Strong border controls;
- A vaccine blitz;
- Strengthening our testing, tracking and tracing; and,
- A business support package.
In relation to our borders, our restrictions have worked well and they have protected us, however it's important that we continuously review these procedures and strengthen them in the face of the Delta variant and as more people seek out Tasmania's relative safety.
We will;
- Increase the on the spot fine to $1557 for those people that arrive at our borders and who have been previously rejected and told not to come because they have been in a high-risk area. This same level of fine will apply for anyone that breaches quarantine requirements;
- Infringements for failing to use the Check in Tas app will remain at $774.80 and police will start to issue infringement notices where people break the rules;
- Boost visibility of Tasmania's border rules at major interstate ports, including through electronic signage, fliers for passengers and one on one contact from Biosecurity officers;
- NSW will continue to be classified as high-risk level 1 for the foreseeable future and in terms of Victoria, we plan to remain closed to that State for at least the next two weeks and potentially up to four weeks depending on the COVID situation in that State and while our Delta Shield Plan is implemented.
Currently our vaccine program leads the country, however with Delta, we need to do more. As part of our work to further strengthen the State's defences against the Delta variant, the Department of Health will commence a Super Six week campaign to boost our rate of vaccination well into the 60 per cent range by September. We will do this by;
- Commencing a program to vaccinate college students (16-18 year olds) from 23 August – with the timing selected in conjunction with the Department of Education to best suit examination scheduling;
- Opening extra days and extending hours in all State community clinics state-wide to target our 30-59 year olds;
- Pharmacies will also be brought on line more quickly; and,
- By lifting our vaccination rates in the 30-59 age group, we can bring forward vaccination of the 16 to 29 age group, meaning we can open to 16-29 year olds in our State clinics on 13 September 2021.
In relation to our testing, tracking and tracing, I have tasked the Secretary of Health along with Public Health with engaging with their interstate counterparts to understand the lessons from NSW and Victoria and to implement any improvements from the experiences of these two jurisdictions in relation to managing the Delta strain. Here in Tasmania, we will;
- Contract additional contact tracers from the national pool to effectively double our workforce should the need arise, noting that we already have a workforce of up to 200 people available within the State to track and trace should an outbreak occur; and,
