Covid Infected Man Flees Hobart's Hotel Quarantine

Tasmania is on high alert as public health scramble to find the close contacts of a Covid positive man who escaped Hotel Quarantine in Hobart.

The 31-year-old New South Wales man flew into Tasmania on Monday night without a valid G2G pass and was sent directly to Hobart TraveLodge Hotel to quarantine.

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The Premier said hotel security discovered the man was not in his room on Tuesday afternoon during a welfare check. 

"Tasmanian police were immediately notified and a check of the Travelodge Hotel was undertaken," Mr Gutwein said.

Police tracked the fugitive down in Hobart's outer northern suburbs on Tuesday afternoon after visiting two households.

He then tested positive to Covid on Wednesday, making it the state’s second Delta infection this month. 

State health commander Katherine Morgan Wicks is urging locals with the mildest of symptoms to get tested.

"Pending on the results of the interviews that are carried out further today, we will assess the need for any localised or any pop-up testing is a local risk is identified," she said.

Meantime, Acting Director of Public Health is Dr Mark Veitch said they are working around the clock to determine the level of risk to the public. 

"The interviews that we're conducting at the moment with the case and their contacts, will help us identify whether there is a sort of risk that means we need to identify the suburb they were in, because it’s a public health risk"

"If there is no public health risk associated with that person's presence in a suburb, then I would breach their privacy," he said.

Exposure sites have been flagged at Hobart Airport, including Jetstar flight JQ715 from Melbourne arriving about 8:30pm into Hobart on October 12.

A full list of exposure sites can be found here.

Anyone who visited a site needs to quarantine immediately and get a Covid test.

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