Tasmania has recorded 1,310 new coronavirus cases and there are 25 COVID-positive people in hospital, four more than yesterday.
Two people are in intensive care and one is on a ventilator.
Of the hospitalisations, 12 are being treated specifically for their COVID symptoms.
At a briefing in Hobart today, Public Health director Mark Veitch gave a breakdown of the ages of those 12 people: one is a child aged under 10, there are two people in their 20s, four in their 30s, two in their 40s, one in their 50s and two in their 60s.
No-one aged 10 to 19 has been hospitalised.
Dr Veitch said more than half the total number of people being treated in hospital for COVID were aged in their 70s or 80s.
"The important fact here is of the people in hospital, only four have currently had the three-dose schedule that includes a booster," he said.
"This is important evidence that supports the finding of other jurisdictions, that booster vaccinations are very important for keeping people out of hospital".
Mersey Hospital detects cases in ward
Health Department boss Kathrine Morgan-Wicks said an investigation was underway into two positive cases detected in a medical ward at the Mersey Hospital at Latrobe.
She said one of four patients on the ward tested positive after exhibiting symptoms and subsequent tests found a second positive case in the ward.
"A patient in their 60s had symptoms and yesterday was tested and found to be positive," Ms Morgan-Wicks said.
No staff at the hospital have been classified as close contacts.
"We are not accepting further admissions to or transfers from the ward at the Mersey and the ward is closed to visitors until the situation has been fully investigated and assessed," Ms Morgan-Wicks said.
"The Department of Health will be reviewing the visitor log for the past 72 hours."
The Royal Hobart Hospital, Launceston General Hospital and the North West Regional Hospital remain at pandemic response level three, while the Mersey Community Hospital is currently at level two.
Ms Morgan-Wicks said there were 20 hospital patients with COVID in the south, three in the north and two in the north-west of the state.
Of the two ICU patients, both are aged in their 70s with one person in a stable condition. The other person's condition is not stable, Ms Morgan-Wicks said.
There are 143 healthcare workers who are COVID positive, with around 260 reporting as close contacts.
Nearly 400 healthcare workers have been granted a close contact exemption, which means they can return to work under strict conditions of daily testing and PPE.
Ms Morgan-Wicks, who has just finished isolating after contracting COVID-19, said she had "experienced a mild illness which I really attribute to my full vaccination and boost dose".
She said it was "great to leave isolation and join the over 13,000 Tasmanians who have now recovered from COVID-19."
Rules change for travellers
From midnight, vaccinated visitors to the state will no longer have to have a negative rapid antigen result before arrival.
Unvaccinated travellers will have to do five days quarantine and provide a negative RAT result before leaving isolation.
"We know the evidence in other states such as Queensland demonstrates that unvaccinated people are up to 24 times more likely to end up in an ICU than someone who is vaccinated", Mr Gutwein said.
"That is why that particular border measure relating to unvaccinated people will remain in place for the moment".
While Dr Veitch conceded that COVID would have been transmitted at the Ashes cricket test at Bellerive Oval last week, he added it would be "difficult to attribute whether someone got it at the cricket or got it at their workplace or at the supermarket".
City Hall to be turned into clinic
The state government is working with Hobart City Council to get City Hall ready to provide outpatient treatment if more capacity is needed.
At the moment, outpatient appointments are conducted at a ward at the Royal Hobart Hospital.
Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff said yesterday that City Hall would be requisitioned if that space was needed for overnight patients.
"When needed, the City Hall clinic will be configured to allow for stringent protocols to be in place to ensure there is no risk of transmission while patients use the facility," he said.
In 2009, City Hall was used as a respiratory outpatient clinic during the swine flu outbreak.
In a statement, Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff said the use of City Hall as part of COVID management was "yet another example of how unprepared they were for the state's border reopening".
"The Greens support any step necessary to keep the health system functioning, but ask the question for Tasmanians — why is the government not fully prepared after two years, and why be secretive about its plans?"
Ms Woodruff said information about the repurposing of facilities for health use around the state was "only being uncovered through questions asked by journalists".
"It is galling the government doesn't respect people through honest and upfront communication about how the COVID epidemic is being managed," she said.
"For months ahead of the border reopening, the Greens, healthcare workers, and unions raised concerns about the government's planning to slow the spread of infections and ready the health system to handle the COVID epidemic. The government ignored and dismissed most of these concerns as irrelevant, but this has proved not to be the case.
"The Premier refused to act on the problems raised by healthcare bodies, and it is not surprising Tasmania's already strained health system is not coping with the load of COVID cases.
"With planning starting for the use of City Hall, the Health Minister should factor in the knowledge and concerns of frontline health staff to make this space work safely and effectively."
