The blockade of the Greater Catherine and Robinson River communities was extended until 22 November after nine new COVID-19 cases were detected overnight in the area.
This brings the total number of occurrences in NT to 17 following yesterday’s two announcements.
“This is clearly a serious escalation of the Northern Territory’s COVID-19 situation,” said NT Prime Minister Michael Gunner.
The Prime Minister said all new COVID-19 cases were household contacts for the two cases recorded on Monday and were all indigenous Australians.
The new case was two twin girls aged 71 to 5 years, one (65 year old female) admitted to Royal Darwin Hospital.
All positive cases are quarantined at the Howard Springs Quarantine Center for the duration of the illness.
Catherine Hospital and McFarlane Elementary School have also been identified as major exposure sites of concern. As a result, parents of children at McFarlane Elementary School are being asked to test their children today.
News of the worsening outbreak in remote areas was released on Monday after Gunner said the situation was serious, but NT officials were “very ready for this.” ..
In a media release on Monday night, Prime Minister Gunner said that the first of the two cases was a 43-year-old fully vaccinated Aboriginal man from Catherine East, living with seven others, Robinson. He said he was spending time in the river community. ABC News report.
He is believed to have been infected since November 10th
The second new case is a 30-year-old Aboriginal female who is the contact for a male household. She jumped into the Robinson River community on November 11, and is believed to have been infected there since that day.
As part of the Robinson River community’s health plan, a rapid evaluation team was dispatched, including the introduction of additional vaccines.
Of the 350 residents of the community, 77% are fully vaccinated and 87% are first vaccinated.
According to Gunner, there is no clear association between a 43-year-old man and previous cases associated with Darwin-Catherine clusters.
“The last known positive case from the Darwin-Catherine cluster has not been in the community since November 4,” he said. “The lack of time between cases with Catherine and the lack of a clear association means that there may be seeding with Catherine.”
In addition, positive wastewater results were found in the local sewage catchment area.
This is Greater Catherine’s second blockade in two weeks.
Meanwhile, it has been announced that approximately 700 civil servants will not return to work after failing to comply with the Northern Territory (NT) government’s COVID-19 vaccine obligations.
This comes after the Northern Territory government’s deadline last Friday for state civil servants to receive jabs to keep their jobs revoked. NT News Reported on Monday.
An estimated 700 civil servants who chose not to have a jab account for an estimated 3 percent of the territory’s 22,000 powerful public services. Among those who do not obey are 14 police officers, 65 nurses and 52 teachers.
Prime Minister Michael Gunner said unvaccinated civil servants had no grace period and would be evacuated after the deadline.
“There is no grace period,” he said. “All unvaccinated civil servants were stuck at 5 pm on Friday. The HR disciplinary process began immediately, under which the first 48 hours of standdown were unpaid standdowns. You will be paid before proceeding to. “
He added that the Supreme Health Officer’s instructions are not exempt and that everyone, public or private, is treated the same under CHO’s instructions, NT News reported.
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