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Tasmania has surpassed 3000 active COVID-19 cases three weeks after reopening as coronavirus-free, with health authorities saying the actual figure could be double.

The island state reported 867 fresh infections on Wednesday, a new daily record, taking the number of active cases to 3118.

State Public Health Director Mark Veitch said about one in 170 Tasmanians is an active case.

"I would not at all be surprised if in a week's time as many as one in 50 Tasmanians are on the list as a current active case of COVID," he told reporters.

Tasmania had no cases when it reopened to high-risk mainland jurisdictions on December 15.

Dr Veitch said case numbers had been on a "steep increase" over the past week and had doubled roughly every two or three days.

"It's difficult to estimate what the true numbers of COVID are at the moment. It could be as many as twice as many people as we're actually diagnosing," he said.

Five people with coronavirus are in hospital for unrelated medical conditions, while 333 cases are being managed at home and 72 are in a community facility.

"Our per capita rates of COVID are similar to Queensland, SA and the ACT, a bit less than Victoria and quite a bit less than where NSW is at the moment," Dr Veitch said.

"We're expecting this wave to continue rising for a week or two at least yet. Unfortunately we are likely to see some hospitalisations in the coming weeks."

Dr Veitch flagged a change to how positive cases are defined to find a "feasible, sustainable and largely automated approach to managing mostly mild cases and their contacts".

"Cases are currently being defined as having a positive PCR test," he said.

"It is possible that in the coming weeks we will look to diagnoses based on rapid antigen tests or perhaps in some instances on clinical symptoms. That's already being considered in other parts of Australia."

Fifty staff from the state's major hospital, the Royal Hobart Hospital, have tested positive.

Department of Health Secretary Kathrine Morgan-Wicks indicated some specialist services at the facility had been impacted.

"We have not had any reports of hospital transmission of COVID. This has been staff that have experienced community transmission or have been on leave," she said.

Tasmania's previous daily high was 702 cases, reported on Tuesday.

"This is challenging. I expect by now most Tasmanians will know someone with COVID or someone who is a close contact," Premier Peter Gutwein said.

Dr Veitch said public exposure sites would no longer be listed on the state government's coronavirus website.

"It's absolutely important that the public understands wherever you go in Tasmania over the coming weeks ... there's a very good chance you're been somewhere where there is someone with COVID."

The state government announced it was increasing capacity at the Macquarie Point drive-through site in Hobart due to high demand for testing.

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Novak Djokovic has long divided opinion in the tennis world, provoking fervent support but also a degree of animosity.

Those emotions have been magnified by the decision to grant the world No.1 a medical exemption to compete in the Australian Open.

Figures within tennis, however, have initially either been quiet, or coy at the news, though this is partly explained by it breaking late in the Australian evening when many of the players preparing in Australia for the grand slam were either heading for bed or away from media outlets.

Jamie Murray, the British doubles player, was neither having just competed in the ATP Cup. When asked his thoughts he said: "I think if it was me that wasn't vaccinated I wouldn't be getting an exemption." After a pause he added: "But well done to him for getting clear to come to Australia and compete."

The reaction of the players alongside Murray at the press conference suggested this was a minefield few were prepared to cross. Certainly the Australian players James Duckworth and Alex de Minaur were more circumspect, if not exactly overjoyed at the news.

"I don't know the criteria for exemptions ,apparently it's an independent panel, he must have fit the criteria somehow, so, yeah, if he's fit the criteria, then, yeah, he should be able to come," said Duckworth.

De Minaur responded with a laugh: "That's very politically correct of you."

The Australian No.1 added: "I just think it's just very interesting, that's all I'm going to say. But, hey, it is what it is, I just hope that the other players that I heard there were other cases as well, they got exemptions, so I hope they will all fit the criteria."

Richard Ings, the former head of Australia's anti-doping authority ASADA, and a keen advocate of vaccination, was less reticent.

"Clearly all this talk about vaccination status being personal and private only held water up to the point of tossing it back in the face of vaccinated Australians," he wrote on twitter.

Ings was replying to the post in which Djokovic announced he was heading for Melbourne, accompanied by a photo of him with packed bags at an airport.

Seven hours after sending this the Serbian had received 32,400 likes, 6,500 retweets and 5,900 replies.

Given he has 8.8m followers those numbers are not particularly large. More pertinent was the content. There was a significant hard-core of support, much of it from compatriots or anti-vaxxers.

But there was far more criticism, often very strongly worded, a lot of it from Australians, many of whom also took aim at their own Government .

The response was similar in old media. Under the sub-headline 'Fury at No-vax grand slam shock' the splash headline in the Brisbane Courier-Mail was 'You must be Djoking'.

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Tasmania is conducting a coronavirus testing blitz on remote King Island due to concerns a positive case visited several large events before knowing they were infectious.

The state's public health department is urging anyone on the island with COVID-19 symptoms, regardless of how severe, to isolate and get tested as soon as possible.

King Island, which sits in Bass Strait off Tasmania's northwest coast, has a population of about 1700 people.

A testing team will arrive on Wednesday to help conduct PCR tests.

"There is concern that a case attended several large private and community events late last week and over the weekend before they knew they were infectious," State Public Health Director Mark Veitch said.

"Testing has been occurring over the past few days, but this is being increased to ensure that anyone on King Island who needs a test can get one as quickly as possible.

"If you have symptoms, do not go to work or visit other people."

The positive case on King Island was confirmed several days ago.

Tasmania on Tuesday reported a new daily case record of 702 infections, taking the state's number of active cases to 2244.

Sixty passengers and 30 crew aboard the Coral Discoverer cruise ship berthed in Hobart have been ordered into seven-day quarantine.

They were deemed close contacts of two COVID-positive people who were removed from the vessel on Monday.

Forty staff from the Royal Hobart Hospital have been furloughed, with Health Minister Jeremy Rockliff declaring Tasmania can expect to hit 2000 daily cases within weeks.

The island state had no cases when it opened to mainland high-risk areas on December 15.

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BlackBerry Ltd is pulling the plug on service for its once ubiquitous business smartphones which were toted by executives, politicians and legions of fans in the early 2000s.

The move marks the end of an era as the phones, which sported a tiny QWERTY physical keyboard, pioneered push email and the BBM instant messaging service.

Former US president Barack Obama made headlines in 2016 when he was asked to give up his BlackBerry and replace it with an unnamed smartphone.

Blackberry lost favour with users with the advent of Apple's touchscreen iPhones and rival Android devices.

In recent years, the company pivoted to making cybersecurity software and embedded operating systems for cars.

Social media was alight with tributes.

One Twitter user reminisced it was a "fabulous machine" and hoped the company's phones would be resurrected.

In a document published in 2020, the company said it would take steps to decommission legacy services for BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS operating systems and added devices running on them would no longer be supported and may not be able to receive or send data, make phone calls or send messages reliably.

A US judge on Monday rejected the company's bid to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it defrauded shareholders by inflating the success and profitability of smartphones using BlackBerry 10 OS and said the class-action case could go to trial this autumn.

© RAW 2022