Tasmania has closed of two entire hospitals forcing 1,000 staff and their households into quarantine due to the coronavirus.
Premier Peter Gutwein, Tasmania's head of government, announced the closures in a bid to stamp out coronavirus in the north west of the island.
North West Regional Hospital (NWRH) and North West Private (NWP) will go into complete shut down, placing more than 1,000 people into quarantine in the port city of Burnie.
The two-week closure will begin at 7am Australian time on Easter Monday when a comprehensive deep clean will be carried out at both hospitals.
The hospitals offer a total 261 beds, with the North West Regional Hospital serving as the primary healthcare facility to around 100,000 residents in the northwest.
Existing patients from NWRH and NWP will be transferred to Mersey Community Hospital, 34 miles from Burnie.
In a statement published on the Tasmanian government website, Mr Gutwein said: "The North-West COVID-19 outbreak has presented significant challenges and we have been working night and day to ensure essential care is continuing to be provided for north west Tasmanians.
"We have already seen unprecedented measures to date, aimed at containing this outbreak, including diverting ambulance services, closing wards to new admissions, and quarantining staff and their households.
"On the advice of Public Health Services and key clinical leaders, we are now taking the next step to ensure that we can get on top of this.
"From tomorrow, we will commence a plan to contain this outbreak and reopen services at the North West Regional Hospital and North West Private as soon as possible."
The Tasmanian government are expanding and bringing staff into Mersey Community Hospital to enable the arrival of extra patients who will only be transferred if their clinical condition requires it.
Mr Gutwein said: "Patient and staff safety is our number one priority, with any transported patients to be treated with the full precautions, as if they have coronavirus, and they will be geographically isolated within the hospitals.
"This has been an extremely difficult decision to make, and has involved complex clinical planning, but it is based on the best advice from our local experts.
"The protection of our health workers and health facilities must remain our number one priority."
The double lockdown comes after the Australian prime minister activated an emergency response plan for novel coronavirus COVID-19.
It includes effective social distancing, increasing health system capacity and isolating those struck by the virus.
More than 1.78 million people have tested positive across the globe for COVID-19 with 108,800 deaths.
In Australia, 6,313 people have tested positive for the virus where the death toll still remains under 100.
Since yesterday, a further 21 new cases were confirmed and the death toll stands at 59 according to the Australian government's department of health.
A spokesperson said: "We are managing the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia as a health emergency."
The majority of people to test positive in Oz caught the virus from overseas, including on cruise ships and on recent travel to Europe and the Americas, according to Australian officials.
Tasmania has seen 133 confirmed cases contributing to slightly more than two per cent of the country's total affected.
While New South Wales, home to Sydney on the east coast, has suffered the most with 2,854 confirmed cases followed by Victoria, home to Melbourne in the south east, with 1,268 confirmed.
