Nervous wait for Tasmania

TASMANIA has recorded no new cases of Covid-19 as the state’s south neared the end of its snap three-day lockdown.

But Public Health director Mark Veitch said a decision on whether the lockdown would end on Monday as initially planned would not be made on Sunday.

“We’ve not identified any cases, but we still have about half the close contacts to get information on,” Dr Veitch said.

“I’ll be in a much more confident position to provide advice about that tomorrow.”

The snap lockdown was announced on Friday after a NSW man, 31, infected with Covid-19 fled hotel quarantine.

Dr Veitch said the man had been unwilling to co-operate with contact tracers.

“I think the fact of the man not disclosing all the places that he’s been does dent my confidence to be able to say I’m absolutely certain that we’ve contacted all of the primary close contacts,” he said.

“I’m pretty confident we’ve contacted almost all, if not all of the primary contacts who have been at the places that we’ve identified where he’s been.”

Authorities have identified 168 primary close contacts, with 95 returning negative results. Eleven of the 15 household contacts have tested negative, with the other results expected later on Sunday.