WE HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE ANGRY

THERE will be a palpable rage felt across the state while digesting the news of a 31year-old NSW man who escaped from a Tasmanian hotel quarantine while infectious with coronavirus.

It comes only a week after a teenager in the state’s north tested positive for Covid-19. He was supposed to be in home quarantine having returned from Melbourne but visited a local convenience store and had guests visiting him at home.

As of time of print on Wednesday, we were still waiting for the full details of potential exposure sites as public health officials and police removed the NSW man from Hobart hotel quarantine into Fountainside medihotel, which is a facility being used by the government to house positive cases.

Despite Tasmanians doing every they can to stop the spread of coronavirus in our state – and our political leaders making tough and sometimes damaging decisions to do likewise – it is upsetting to see there are selfish individuals who still refuse to follow even the most basic of rules.

Premier Peter Gutwein could not be clearer with travellers: if you have not been permitted entry to the state, you will be sent packing.

The plan was to send this person back to where he had came from but by the time authorities went to collect him, he had absconded from his room.

Questions will, of course, need to be asked about the security at the Hobart Travelodge, though it is a sad state of affairs that people need to be guarded to do the right thing.

Police have issued the man with a $3100 fine, which seems a pittance compared with the damage he could cause should he have spread the virus in the broader community.

People have the right to be angry because authorities are assuming the man has the highly infectious Delta variant and if the virus does spread, we know from looking at states on the mainland just how quickly it can happen.

Although our vaccination rates are increasing by the day in certain parts we are a long way from the ideal 70-80 per cent of fully vaccinated residents needed to avoid lockdowns in the event of an outbreak.

The economic cost of shuttering businesses, many of which are already struggling due to border closures, would be devastating.

With luck, this case, like the last, is swiftly dealt with and it serves only as an important reminder for any laggards that the only way to protect yourself, your family and your community from Covid-19 is by getting vaccinated.

Do it now, and do it quickly, for the sake of us all.