Peter Gutwein,Premier
Keeping Tasmanians safe and secure during the coronavirus pandemic is our number one priority.
On behalf of the Tasmanian Government I would firstly like to thank our health and aged care workers who are working tirelessly to protect Tasmanians and help stop any further spread of the virus.
Unfortunately, over this past week we have had an outbreak of the virus in the North West Regional Hospital, which has affected both medical professionals, and a patient.
This is an extremely serious situation and we want to do all we can to avoid further outbreaks in our hospitals, as well as in aged care homes.
Therefore, to ensure we are keeping our patients safe across all our hospitals we will be stipulating that from noon today, no patient visits will be permitted, except for a support person due to the birth of a child, a parent, carer or guardian for an ill child or dependent person, or for end of life support for patients. Visitors to patients must be well and comply with strict screening requirements.
Similarly, with our elderly among the most vulnerable in the state, we will also today put in place tighter restrictions on visitors to residential aged care facilities, to protect them from the risk of coronavirus.
As of noon today, there will only be visits to aged care residents for end of life support and essential visits by doctors and medical staff.
Further, residents will not be permitted to leave an aged care facility unless it's for essential medical requirements as arranged by facility management.
These are tough measures, as many of us have people we care for in hospitals and aged care homes and I know that this will cause distress to many people.
But we must do everything we can to keep aged care facilities and covid-clear areas of the hospitals free of the deadly coronavirus.
Stay home, save lives.
