Tasmania vows to turn away non-residents as it ramps up border shut down

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has vowed to turn away people who do not live in the state in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus.

He told visitors not to get the Trans Tasman ferry from Melbourne.   

‘As from today, if you are travelling to Tasmania and it’s non-essential travel, do not come,’ he said on Tuesday morning.

‘Do not get on the TT Line. What we will do is turn you around and ask you to go back.’

Essential workers such as health professionals will be exempt from the ban. 

The move means the state has the harshest border restrictions in Australia. 

Queensland, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia are asking people who enter to self-isolate for two weeks.

New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT have no border restrictions. 

On Monday afternoon, Health Minister Greg Hunt told Parliament that efforts are under way to double the number of intensive care beds and ventilators in the country amid fears hospitals will soon be overwhelmed.

Australia currently has around 2,500 ICU beds, only enough to cover 0.01 per cent of the population at once. 

Mr Hunt said several Australian manufactures including medical company ResMed have offered to produce ventilators.

He also revealed that one million masks are being distributed around the nation today – and there are 300million more on order. 

There are also 1.5million testing kits, including finger prick tests, on order as the government acknowledges that testing is crucial to slowing the spread of the virus. 

Australia’s pubs, clubs, cafes, gyms and cinemas put up shutters on Monday as severe new restrictions to battle the coronavirus pandemic began.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced ‘stage one’ restrictions on Sunday night, ordering pubs and licensed premises close for six months.

The restrictions also covered places of worship, casinos, nightclubs and registered clubs while restaurants and cafes can operate only for takeaways and deliveries.

The drastic move put a thousands of Australians who work in hospitality and entertainment out of a job. 

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg estimated that 1million people in Australia will apply for benefits due to the coronavirus fallout.  

Around 95,000 people tried to apply online for income support at once, causing the MyGov website to crash at 9.40am on Monday.

This was up from around 6,500 users at once last week.

Mr Morrison has doubled the jobseeker payment with an extra $550 a fortnight to support those who have lost their jobs. 

He revealed that the Treasury advised him against adopting the UK government’s drastic measure of paying 80 per cent of millions of workers’ wages because it would take too long to implement. 

On Monday afternoon, the NRL told almost all staff to take leave immediately as the league faces being shut down by border closures. Staff will take paid annual leave and can accrue negative leave. The AFL has already been called off.

Meanwhile, Minister for Industry Karen Andrews said hand sanitiser will be back on shelves soon, after several companies – including Shayne Warne’s gin distillery – started making it to combat the high demand.