Jeremy Rockliff,Minister for Health & Minister for Community Services and Development
The Tasmanian Government has secured an additional quarantine facility to meet the increased demand being caused by the evolving COVID-19 situation across the country and associated border restrictions.
The Travelodge Hotel in Hobart has been commissioned to be part of our quarantine efforts, contributing to our already strong and robust hotel quarantine facilities.
The Delta strain of COVID-19 is significantly more infectious than previous variants, which has resulted in more rapid and stringent action being taken with restrictions to borders, to protect public safety.
The most recent series of interstate outbreaks has resulted in a significant and increasing number of domestic travellers requiring quarantine in government-designated hotel accommodation in Tasmania, putting pressure on existing facilities.
At present, we have 486 rooms available across our hotel quarantine program, and when this new facility comes online in coming days that total will increase to 594, bolstering our ability to safely quarantine more returning Tasmanians from high risk areas and essential workers.
Importantly, we will still follow a practice of scheduling arrivals in accordance with room availability so that we can comfortably accommodate people and minimise the risk of an outbreak associated with people arriving from high risk areas.
Our thoughts continue to be with states and territories dealing with what are very challenging and serious outbreaks and we'll continue to take swift and responsive action to keep Tasmanians safe.
