Covid caught inside Howard Springs no cause for concern: Chalker

Authorities have moved to reassure Territorians three people who may have caught Covid-19 while quarantining at Howard Springs are not a sign the disease has gotten loose within the centre.

UPDATE: AUTHORITIES have moved to reassure Territorians three people who may have caught Covid-19 while quarantining at Howard Springs are not a sign the disease has gotten loose within the centre.

On Sunday, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said a man in his 40s, a woman in her 20s and a boy aged under 10 had all tested positive for Covid-19 on the 12th day after they arrived at the facility, indicating they picked up the infection while in quarantine.

“These people have tested positive late in their replication cycle, as such we think it may be likely that they were exposed to the virus while they were in Howard Springs as a result of some family mingling within the facility early in the quarantine,” he said.

“We have since tightened the mingling rules for these families in the facility while still ensuring that they have the appropriate support that they need.

“Unfortunately, it will mean for some people their quarantine period needs to be reset as a result.”

But Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said while some family groups had been mingling at the centre, there were strict protocols in place to keep high risk groups, such as international arrivals, separated.

“It’s important to understand that there’s zones that are clearly identifiable, we don’t cross mix different flights, they’re all quite separate and contained in their various zones, particularly in the international repat area,” he said.

“When there’s little kids running around and the like it’s very difficult for a parent to ultimately leave them alone in a room and those sorts of things, so there’s some practical application for what occurs there.

“But we have CCTV within the facility that gives us a pretty good line of sight to make sure that people are staying there, people can stay to their balconies, people talk across the pathways to each other, across the balconies, so the compliance is very, very good and it holds well.”

Mr Chalker said despite the new positive cases, there was no broader risk of cross-infection at the Centre for National Resilience.

“The community can be very reassured that while we have some Covid positives, and there’s a significant number, they’re currently in the red zone,” he said.

“That red zone is a very, very strict zone and then obviously in the other areas where there’s close contacts we make sure they’re all cohorted to the place from which they ultimately came. There is no cross mingling of any others.”

The new cases bring the total from the current cluster to 56, with a fourth positive case being detected in a member of a flight crew on a plane from London.

Meanwhile, about 60 per cent of Lajamanu residents have now received their first jab as authorities rush to process Covid-19 tests after wastewater results plunged the community into lockdown on Saturday.

Mr Gunner said no one in Lajamanu had reported being symptomatic and health staff were aiming to have everyone’s test results back within the next 48 hours.

“What’s happening in Lajamanu is yet another reminder for everyone — Covid is going nowhere, it will eventually end up everywhere, every day we stop or slow the spread of Covid is a good day but it is hard work,” he said.

“It’s been 30 says since the original case for this cluster arrived in the Territory and we’re still dealing with it, it’s going to keep popping up, there’s not a single measure that can totally keep Covid out of your community.

“You being vaccinated is your best defence because that means if you catch the virus you are far less likely to get really sick.”

Mr Gunner said waste water testing in other remote communities had so far come up negative.

He said of the 537 close contacts in the current cluster, all but one had been contacted and were isolating with 518 testing negative.

EARLIER: A COVID-19 positive passenger repatriated from South Africa to the Howard Springs quarantine centre will have further genomic testing to determine if the virus strain contracted is the Omicron variant.

The passenger was repatriated to Darwin on Thursday and, according to acting chief health officer Dr Charles Pain, the passenger returned a low test result and will require further testing.

A Covid-19 positive passenger repatriated from South Africa to the Howard Springs quarantine centre will have further genomic testing to determine if the virus strain contracted is the ‘concerning’ new Omicron variant. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Dr Pain said it was not clear the impact the new variant could have on Covid numbers and health impacts.

“The recurrence of the new strain has resulted in a surge of cases in South Africa,” he said. “What we don’t know is if it’s going to be a more lethal virus or cause more illness or whether vaccines will have greater or lesser effects.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has already declared Omicron a “variant of concern”, which University of Sydney epidemiologist Alexandra Martiniuk said was “very quick”.

“Usually they say it’s a ‘variant of interest’ and often it will sit as ‘variant of interest’ for some time — even weeks — but they’ve designated this a ‘variant of concern’ quite quickly,” Professor Martiniuk told the ABC.

The development comes as Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced the Territory recorded three new local Covid-19 cases in the past 24-hours, all linked to the Katherine cluster.

The new cases are a man in his 40s from Katherine, a woman in her 20s from Robinson River and a male child under 10 also from Robinson River.

The Territory now has 56 cases linked to the Katherine cluster.

The Chief Minister said the three new cases may have been contracted in Howard Springs as a result of “family mingling”.

A fourth case recorded overnight was a crew member on a repatriation flight from London.

Originally published as Covid caught inside Howard Springs no cause for concern: Chalker