The text message was sent to more than 900 people on Monday morning and it said: "Health has identified that you may be eligible for release from a stay-at-home requirement as of 11.59pm tonight".

However, the message was only meant to be sent to 122 people who were set to exit stay-at-home requirements at 11.59pm on Monday.

An ACT Health spokeswoman said the message was sent due to human error.

"ACT Health contacts people by SMS and email due to be released from stay-at-home orders on the morning they are due to be released," the spokeswoman said.

"The SMS and email messages advise people they may be eligible to leave stay-at-home requirements from 11.59pm that night, provided they have stayed out of areas subject to stay-at-home requirements.

"Regrettably, [Monday's] SMS message was sent to a wider cohort than just the 122 people due to be released from their stay-at-home orders [on Monday].

"The error was identified quickly and a follow-up message was sent to all people who received the message in error about 30 minutes later."

ACT Health said the incident had been reviewed and further measures had been implemented to ensure it didn't happen again.

Canberrans who had returned from Greater Sydney from June 21 were subject to stay-at-home requirements for two weeks under restrictions that came into place on June 26.

MORE COVID-19 NEWS:

Under the stay-at-home requirements, people could only leave their home to shop for food, to exercise, to study or to work if these were not possible from home.

However, ACT residents returning from Greater Sydney are now under a strict 14-day home quarantine, after the new requirements came into force last Friday.

The two-week quarantine only applies to those who entered the ACT after 11.59pm on Friday July 9.

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