The government has dismissed criticism that it has ignored the World Health Organisation's position on the Omicron variant by categorising it as mild in nature.
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WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently said while Omicron appeared to be less severe than Delta, especially to vaccinated people, it should not be classed as mild as it was still hospitalising and killing people.
Tasmanian Greens leader Cassy O'Connor on the weekend said the government had been misleading in its language on the variant.
"The Premier and Health Minister have maintained the lie that Omicron is mild," she said.
"This is dangerous, irresponsible language."
Tasmanian government minister Sarah Courtney on Sunday said the government's messaging was that people still needed to take precautions to prevent themselves from catching the disease.
"We know from the results that we are seeing in our community that (Omicron) is more mild than other variants," she said.
Tasmanian health care workers who have been defined as close contacts and asymptomatic are now able to return to workplaces.
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Labor's Sarah Lovell said the decision had been made on short notice with little consultation with workers themselves and no explanation on the risk assessment undertaken to reach this decision.
She said staff had expressed concerns for their families, patients and colleagues in having close contacts of COVID cases in health care environments.
"Nobody wants to expose anybody to COVID, but they're being put in a situation where the choice is either they potentially risk exposing a colleague or patient or they stay home and they leave their colleagues working in a system far, far beyond capacity," Ms Lovell said.
Ms Courtney said the decision to put close contacts in health care workplaces would be made on a case-by-case basis with individualised risk mitigation around a particular staff member.
"This proves we are being responsive and dynamic to the circumstances," she said.
"We're seeing similar decisions made in other jurisdictions."
Ms Courtney said health facilities were highly controlled environments where workers wore personal protective equipment.
She said the government would talk with Public Health Services on the situation with close contacts in other workplaces in the future.