BORDERS COULD OPEN IN OCTOBER:

TASMANIANS may be given an early mark for travel to COVID-free states in six weeks, as Premier Peter Gutwein signals transition out of pandemic-related restrictions.

Quarantine-free travel to and from all states bar Victoria could resume in late October, Mr Gutwein said, as he announced an easing of restrictions for fly-in fly-out workers, fruit pickers and footy crowds.

Declaring the state was maintaining a “sensible glide path”, Mr Gutwein said an early reopening of state’s borders would be based on an assessment of the risk.

“The State Controller, on the advice from Public Health, is looking at the possibility of bringing forward the date for easing our border restrictions with COVID-safe and low-risk states by the end of October, such as South Australia, WA and the Northern Territory, Queensland, the ACT and possibly New South Wales as well,” he said.

FIFO workers will be allowed a quarantine-free return to the state from midnight Sunday.

Seasonal workers will be allowed in subject to being tested and staying either at their workplace or place of residence for 14 days, allowed out only to get essential supplies, for medical appointments, in emergencies, or to leave the state.

Restrictions on outdoor gatherings will also be relaxed to allow 1000 people, up from 500. Indoor gatherings will remain limited to 250 people.

After a Friday meeting of national cabinet, Mr Gutwein said Tasmania will not host quarantine sites for Australians returning from abroad except in an emergency, but would instead contribute a proportion of the cost of the national effort.

An extra 1600 Australians will be able to come home each week after state premiers agreed to lift their caps on international arrivals in a phased increase by October 12.

The total cap will lift from 4000 to almost 5600 per week by early October.

“This is going to help get more Australians home,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

With about 26,000 Aussies still stranded overseas trying to get home, political leaders are also working to free up more hotel quarantine beds by allowing Australians to come home from COVID-free areas in New Zealand without having to quarantine.

All contact tracing systems in Australia will also be digitally linked together by the federal government.

“If there were to be an outbreak in a particular place, what that means is that we would be able to swarm, harness the tracing capabilities of more states and territories to plug in to the tracing work that is being done in that particular jurisdiction,” Mr Morrison said.

Queensland announced on Friday it will relax its borders to the ACT next week, while South Australia will open to New South Wales. As states begin to reopen, Mr Morrison said Australians travelling on domestic flights would need to provide their name, email, mobile and state of residence from October 1 to assist with contact tracing.

The Tasmanian government also yesterday launched a new “Keep On Top of COVID” print and digital advertising campaign to remind Tasmanians of the precautions they should take to keep the state safe: including handwashing, social distancing, and continued testing.

Director of Public Health Mark Veitch urged people to be aware of the need to continue testing, the rates of which have dipped 10 per cent in recent weeks.

“As I stand here today, I can’t actually tell you that there’s no coronavirus in Tasmania today,” he said.

But he said if we keep up testing we can be confident of being coronavirus-free.

Labor’s David O’Byrne said the government didn’t have a plan to transition the state out of the COVID crisis.

“A vague indication today by Peter Gutwein that borders could open sooner than the 1 December time frame comes without any sign of a plan to manage COVID,” he said.