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Travellers to Tasmania will be required to take a rapid antigen test one day before arriving in the island state, as it scraps a 72-hour pre-travel PCR test requirement.

The state recorded 92 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and the first virus-related hospitalisations since its borders reopened a fortnight ago.

The fresh infections are a daily record and take the number of overall active cases in Tasmania to 386.

There are two cases in hospital but none are in intensive care.

After attending national cabinet on Thursday, Premier Peter Gutwein announced several changes to the state's testing rules.

From 12.01am on January 1, travellers to the state must take a rapid antigen test 24 hours before their arrival. Queensland and South Australia have also scrapped PCR test requirements.

"If your result is positive you cannot come," Mr Gutwein told reporters in Hobart.

The test result must be declared by travellers on the state's Tas e-Travel border pass system.

Evidence of the test will not be required at the border, however anyone who lies will face a fine.

Travellers arriving in the state will be given another rapid antigen test kit at the border to carry with them in case they develop symptoms or become a close contact.

The state had required travellers to take PCR tests 72 hours before arrival since reopening its borders earlier this month, adding to long queues at interstate testing sites.

In further changes announced on Thursday, Tasmanians who travel interstate for seven days or fewer will not be required to get tested upon their return unless they are symptomatic.

Additionally, to ease pressure on testing sites, only those with COVID-19 symptoms or a positive RAT test will be able to get a PCR test.

Two free rapid antigen testing sites, at Rokeby and Glenorchy, will be set up in coming days but they will not operate as walk-up testing sites.

"I want to stress - please do not just turn up to these sites," Mr Gutwein said.

"Health will prioritise who is eligible for a rapid antigen test and will contact those people directly and arrange for them to turn up and receive tests at the locations that are being established."

Tasmania currently has half a million rapid tests available, with another two million arriving over the next month.

The majority of the state's cases, 178, are being managed at home, while there are 74 people in community clinics.

Meanwhile, St Ann's aged care facility in Hobart was forced into lockdown on Wednesday after a staff member who had worked there on Christmas Day tested positive.

Mr Gutwein said initial tests results from staff and residents had come back negative.

© AAP 2021

Ghislaine Maxwell has been found guilty by a US jury of helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls, sealing a remarkable fall from grace for the British socialite.

Maxwell, 60, was accused of recruiting and grooming four teenagers for Epstein between 1994 and 2004. Her former boyfriend Epstein took his own life in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges of his own.

She was convicted on five of six counts. After the verdict was read, Maxwell pulled down her face mask and poured herself a glass of water.

Along with the trials of movie producer Harvey Weinstein and singer R. Kelly, Maxwell's case is among the highest-profile trials to take place in the wake of the MeToo movement, which encouraged women to speak out about sexual abuse by famous and powerful people.

During the trial's closing arguments in federal court in Manhattan a prosecutor said Maxwell was Epstein's "partner in crime".

"Ghislaine Maxwell made her own choices. She committed crimes hand in hand with Jeffrey Epstein. She was a grown woman who knew exactly what she was doing," Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe said.

Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, applauded the verdict in a statement that said Maxwell was convicted of "one of the worst crimes imaginable."

"The road to justice has been far too long," his statement said.

"But, today, justice has been done. I want to commend the bravery of the girls - now grown women - who stepped out of the shadows and into the courtroom."

Maxwell's lawyers had argued she was being used as a scapegoat for Epstein and sought to portray the accounts of her four accusers as not credible, saying their memories had been corrupted over the decades and that they were motivated by money.

"Epstein's death left a gaping hole in the pursuit of justice for many of these women," Maxwell's defence lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said.

"She's filling that hole, and filling that empty chair."

US District Judge Alison Nathan did not say when Maxwell would be sentenced. She said she appreciated the jury's work in the face of surging COVID-19 cases.

"Let me say my sincere thanks on behalf of the court and the parties and myself for your attention, time and service," the judge said.

The jury deliberated for five full days before reaching the verdict.

During the trial, jurors heard emotional and graphic testimony from four women, two of whom said they were 14 when Epstein began abusing them. Three of the women said Maxwell herself had inappropriately touched them.

Prosecutors displayed for the jury a green massage table that was seized from Epstein's Palm Beach, Florida, estate in 2005. Three of the four accusers said they gave Epstein massages that escalated into sexual activity.

A woman known by the pseudonym Jane testified that she was 14 when Epstein first abused her in 1994.

Maxwell sometimes took part in her sexual encounters with Epstein and acted as if it was normal, Jane testified.

"It made me feel confused because that did not feel normal to me," Jane said. "I'd never seen anything like this or felt anything like this."

Moe said during her closing argument that Maxwell's presence made young girls feel comfortable with Epstein. Otherwise, receiving an invitation to spend time with a middle-aged man would have seemed "creepy" and "set off alarm bells," Moe said.

"Epstein could not have done this alone," she said.

Moe reminded jurors of bank records they saw at trial showing that Epstein paid Maxwell millions of dollars over the years. She said Maxwell was motivated to do whatever it took to keep Epstein happy in order to maintain her luxurious lifestyle.

Defence lawyer Laura Menninger countered during closing arguments that Maxwell was an innocent woman and that prosecutors had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Maxwell was aware of or involved in any crimes Epstein committed.

The jury also saw images depicting Maxwell's and Epstein's intimate relationship during the 1990s. The never-before-seen digital photographs showed Maxwell kissing Epstein on the cheek or rubbing his bare foot.

Maxwell's lawyers aggressively pushed back on the accusers' accounts during the trial, arguing that their stories had shifted over the years.

Maxwell's defence said the women were motivated by money to implicate Maxwell since all four had received million-dollar awards from a compensation fund for Epstein's victims.

But the women disputed those characterisations, saying they decided to testify out of a desire for justice, not money.

"Money will not ever fix what that woman has done to me," testified one woman, known by her first name Carolyn.

© RAW 2021

Supermaxi Black Jack has overcome a coronavirus-hit preparation and rugged seas to take line honours in the slowest Sydney to Hobart in 17 years.

The Monaco-registered 100-footer crossed the River Derwent finish line under the cover of darkness at 1:37am (AEDT) on Wednesday.

Black Jack's time of two days 12 hours 37 minutes and 17 seconds was the slowest since Nicorette III's win in 2004.

Black Jack had been locked in a tight three-way tussle down Tasmania's east coast with runner-up LawConnect and third-placed SHK Scallywag 100.

LawConnect finished about two-and-a-half hours behind Black Jack after this year's fleet was decimated by rough seas with 36 of the 88-strong starting field forced to retire.

"It was tough in the beginning. The first 30 hours were pretty rugged," Black Jack skipper Mark Bradford said.

"We had a tough race with both the (supermaxis). We dropped Scallywag at the end for a bit but she came back and LawConnect was right there the whole way."

Bradford said he spent the first 20 hours below deck.

"I just had internal problems, mostly my stomach was coming out of my mouth," he said.

"Maybe it's in my DNA. I'll put it down to the conditions"

Black Jack previously claimed line honours in the 628 nautical mile bluewater classic in 2009 under the name Alfa Romeo.

It finished fifth in the most recent Sydney to Hobart in 2019 and was second to Wild Oats XI by 28 minutes in a 2018 thriller.

For the first time, owner Peter Harburg was not aboard a Black Jack yacht and instead greeted his team at Constitution Dock in Hobart.

"It is very emotional. It is the grand prize of yachting in Australia. For me it's the first time I've been involved in a winning team," he said.

"I don't know whether I want to cry or laugh or give Mark another hug. I can't describe it."

Celebrations were subdued, with crew members not allowed to disembark until they had a confirmed negative rapid antigen COVID-19 test result.

Black Jack missed a chance to compete against LawConnect and SHK Scallywag 100 in the inaugural Australian maxi championship earlier this month because a crew member tested positive for COVID-19.

Their program had already suffered a setback when the boat's mast broke in the Brisbane-Gladstone race in April.

"We started with a 66-footer as Black Jack and we've worked up to this," Harburg said.

"We've won every race on the east coast of Australia and we've beaten every other yacht on the east coast of Australia at different times.

"But this is the prize that has eluded us all along."

Bradford said Black Jack only suffered minor breakages in a race whereas many smaller competitors were crippled by serious issues.

The last time a similar number of yachts retired was in 2015 when 25 failed to finish.

Owner and skipper of LawConnect, Christian Beck, said lighter winds following the rough period were "perfect" conditions for Black Jack.

"If the forecast had have been true, we should have won. But because it was really light on the second day it was very difficult to win," he said.

"Coming second in a heavy boat like this with a day of light air was a good result. I'm very happy with what the crew did."

Some 40 boats remain at sea, with Mayfair, Celestial and Ichi Ban among handicap frontrunners.

© AAP 2021