The health, safety and wellbeing of Tasmanians is the Government’s number one priority during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is why work is now underway to increase our rapid response capabilities.
As one of the four safeguards - increased testing, better tracing, rapid response capability and COVID-Safety plans that we are putting in place in order to begin easing restrictions, it is critical Tasmania has the health and emergency system capacity to rapidly respond in the event of a further outbreak.
The rapid response capability will be supported by a core group of 15 staff in Public Health, Tasmania Police, Department of Health and other agencies.
An inter-agency staffing capacity will also be established across the state service, where appropriately trained officers are effectively on stand-by, enabling rapid call-up should an outbreak response be required. This call-up will depend on the specific threat being dealt with and could result in a further 50 or more staff being added to the core rapid response team.
It is likely that these arrangements will be in place for the next 12 to 18 months, to ensure that Tasmania is able to respond if and when an outbreak occurs.
The State Control Centre, Public Health Services and the Department of Health are continuing to work closely to ensure we have the resource requirements and processes in place for delivering the rapid response capacity.
If we put in place the safeguards, and work together to recover gradually and responsibly, we will get our way of life back and we will rebuild a stronger Tasmania.