A Tasmanian taxi driver who drove a passenger infected with the Delta strain of coronavirus to the airport transported around 17 other people before he was made aware of the risk.
In a press conference in Hobart on Sunday, the Tasmanian government announced it was undertaking a review into whether QR codes for the Check-in Tas app should be made mandatory in all taxis across the state.
By Monday, Premier Peter Gutwein said it had been decided that all Ubers and taxis would be required to use QR codes, starting at 6pm on Friday.
"We will introduce that now, also buses will be considered as well and other forms of transport," Mr Gutwein said.
Tasmania has no active cases of coronavirus in the community.
The 31-year-old man from New South Wales, who arrived in Tasmania on Monday and returned to NSW on Wednesday, made his own choice to leave hotel quarantine and return home before receiving his positive test result.
He did not have a valid G2G pass to enter Tasmania and was fined $1,000 by NSW Police.
The manager of Taxi Combined Launceston, Jamil Rayhan, said it was unfortunate that one of their long-term drivers had transported the infected passenger from hotel quarantine.
"He's close to 70 and obviously if he contracts the virus from the returned traveller, he should be worried, but the test result came back negative, which is good," he said.
"Thank god nothing happened with the recent case, and I hope it remains the same for the whole community."
Mr Rayhan said while it was not yet mandatory, he thought introducing QR codes to taxis was the right thing to do.
Mr Rayhan said around 70 per cent of customers did not have any problems scanning QR codes, but some elderly people struggled with their smartphones and others just didn't want to do it.
'I could become a superspreader'
Travellers returning to Tasmania are allowed to catch taxis from the airport or Spirit of Tasmania to travel home to isolate.
Local resident Michael Murzecki recently made this journey, travelling from the Hobart Airport to Moonah in a cab.
"I just jumped back into a taxi here in Hobart returning from Melbourne and there was no QR code," he said.
"It's quite alarming really, because after he dropped me off in Moonah, potentially he could have just gone to the supermarket down the road and picked up a senior citizen and taken them to a nursing home to see a friend.
It comes after Cairns in far north Queensland entered a three-day lockdown sparked by a local taxi driver testing positive after being in the community for 10 days.
More information on the current state of restrictions can be found on the Tasmanian government's coronavirus website.
