About one in 10 of NT’s forced quarantiners have paid or paying off bill nearly two months on
ABOUT one in 10 people forced into mandatory quarantine in the NT during the first round of lockdown have paid or are paying off their bill
Northern Territory
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ABOUT one in 10 people forced into mandatory quarantine in the NT during the first round of lockdown have paid or are paying off their bill.
Nearly two months after the rule forcing all arrivals into the NT to spend two weeks in a hotel at their own expense shifted, the NT News can reveal 309 people have paid their invoice or commenced a payment plan so far.
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Between March 24, when the rule came into effect for international arrivals, and June 15, 2316 people were put into hotel quarantine, with 1165 of those in Darwin, Katherine and Nhulunbuy and another 1151 people in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek.
This includes every man, woman and child, and the government had not released the break down on how many were singles or in family groups, which will change the total number of bills that need to be sent out.
The fee for individuals in mandatory quarantine in hotels was $250 a day to a maximum of $2500, while for family units it was $500 a day to a maximum of $5000.
The NT charged arrivals the fee from the get go, with other jurisdictions following suit only in mid-July.
Secure NT confirmed 1004 invoices had been issued as at the end of July, with 309 either paid or on a payment plan.
At a minimum, this means the government has sent out invoices totalling $2.5 million and could account for $772,500.
A total of 99 hardship claims had been approved, meaning those bills had been slashed by 50 per cent upon someone proving they were low income earners that made $52,706 a year or less, or $68,894 a year or less for families.
A Secure NT spokeswoman said the government would continue to issue invoices while supervised mandatory quarantine for hot spot arrivals (parts of NSW, parts of Queensland, all of Victoria) are in place.
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As at 5am on Monday, 498 people were in supervised quarantine in the NT, out of the 23,002 people that had arrived into the jurisdiction since borders reopened on July 17.
More than half those travellers, or 14,782, had arrived by road. The NT has three active cases of coronavirus.
Originally published as About one in 10 of NT’s forced quarantiners have paid or paying off bill nearly two months on