Tasmania has over-reported coronavirus cases by more than 1300 because of data errors, as well as infections being counted twice.
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The island state's cumulative tally will be corrected and shifted downwards by 1333, about four per cent of its overall number of recorded cases, in Tuesday's figures.
Premier Peter Gutwein said the miscalculations were due to a system error, plus "some double counting" that occurred when rapid antigen positive test results began to be included in daily numbers.
"We actually had some people that were logging in twice with both a PCR result and rapid antigen test result," he told reporters on Monday.
"It doesn't change our understanding of transmission in Tasmania."
The health department says duplications occurred from December 15 to January 23.
"(The errors) didn't affect any of our referring on of individuals for appropriate medical care," Deputy Public Health Director Julie Graham said.
"The main result was some people did get extra messaging related to being cases and related to being released from isolation. I do apologise for this."
Dr Graham said the wrong numbers didn't impact any public health decisions.
"It didn't have any effect on what we call our 'epi curve', whether our cases are increasing, decreasing or plateauing," she said.
Tasmania reopened to mainland hot spots on December 15 and has recorded five COVID-19 deaths since.
The state documented 504 new cases on Monday, the lowest daily figure since January 3.
There are 16 patients with COVID-19 in hospital, with seven of those being treated specifically for the virus - a drop from Sunday's figure of 10.
One person is in intensive care. The remaining nine cases are in hospital for unrelated medical conditions.
There were 594 new infections recorded on Sunday and 683 on Saturday.
The state has 4903 documented active cases, continuing a broad downward trend in recent weeks.
Tasmania has experienced 18 virus deaths in total.
The state government, meanwhile, will operate a special vaccination clinic in the northwest town of Smithton on Friday for children aged five to 11 as part of a return-to-school blitz.
More than 46 per cent of the aged group have received their first vaccination ahead of term one resuming on February 9.
Australian Associated Press
