Tasmania is bracing for an influx of tourists and inevitable COVID-19 cases as it reopens to mainland states and territories today.
The island state has thrown open its borders to all fully-vaccinated travellers from Wednesday after closures spanning the best part of two years.
“This has been a very difficult 22 months. We have made some really difficult decisions,” Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’ve had to stop people entering to attend a funeral, to bury a loved one. We’ve stopped weddings.”
Under the reopening plan, people coming from designated high-risk areas must return a negative test in the 72 hours before they arrive and present proof at the border.
Tasmania has been largely spared from internal restrictions implemented across Australia and has been essentially free of virus cases in the community since a deadly outbreak early last year.
“It’s fair to say that many people will be looking forward to reopening, but also a little anxious about what impacts that will have on themselves, their family and their communities,” Mental Health Council of Tasmania CEO, Connie Digolis, said.
“One thing that people can do is try and focus on the good things that the border reopening will bring. For some that might mean reuniting with friends or family that they haven’t seen for a couple of years.
“For others, it might even be the big events that we can look forward to getting out and enjoying during the Tassie summer.”
Tasmania, with a population of more than 541,000, has had 238 cases in total and 13 deaths.
The state government released border-reopening modelling a few months ago which predicts 87 deaths in the six months from December and 50,000 cases.
The health department said the system is prepared although several unions have raised concerns about staff levels.
External triage areas have been prepared at major hospitals to facilitate greater patient screening in the event of community transmission.
State Health Commander Kathrine Morgan-Wicks said a virus surge capacity of 211 beds statewide exists, plus a critical care surge capacity of 114 beds.
More than 90 per cent of Tasmanians aged over 16 are fully vaccinated.
“While other states have opened their borders at 80 per cent, we took the very sensible decision to wait until we had 90 per cent,” Mr Gutwein said.
Tasmania has been swift to implement border restrictions during the pandemic to safeguard a population that is older than the national average.
The news follows Monday’s reopening of Queensland’s hard border which saw an estimated 50,000 vehicles cross the border into the Sunshine State from New South Wales.
Western Australia has also announced that it will reopen its hard border to all of Australia on February 5, 2022.
Via AAP