Covid NT: Large proportion of Territorians’ lifestyles impacted

A survey of NT News readers has revealed how Covid has had an impact on everyday life.

A LARGE proportion of Territorians have altered their lifestyles in response to Covid.

In a poll conducted by the NT News, 50 per cent of respondents said they were staying at home more often in an attempt to dodge the virus.

Just 10 per cent said the Covid outbreak had not changed their way of life at all.

16 per cent responded with “it’s totally changed my life” and 18 per cent said they wear a mask while doing things they normally did.

Thankfully, only 6 per cent were finding it harder than normal to obtain a booty call.

It comes after a week-long outdoor mask mandate was lifted last week.

It is also understood the Chief Minister hasn’t ruled out sending double-jabbed tourists to Howard Springs if changes are made to the Territory’s definition of ‘fully vaccinated’

NT Health has also revealed a map of the locations of the active cases in the Territory.

Hospitality businesses plea for removal of mandates

THE Northern Territory has become the only Australian jurisdiction with an outdoor mask mandate, despite the hospitality industry’s pleas for the removal of restrictions.

Health Minister Natasha Fyles announced the week-long mandate on Saturday, which applies to everybody aged over 12 years old but does not apply while exercising or if you are able to socially distance.

Master Builders spokesman Dave Malone said there was not enough clarity for businesses over the new outdoor mask mandate.

“(It) is another frustrating example of media conference long before any specific public information,” Mr Malone said.

He said the construction industry would follow the new mask requirements, but added there were “practical limitations in the workplace”.

“Especially where there is excessive heat, or the need for clean communications and co-ordination, and where other PPE is necessary,” Mr Malone said.

He said employers were well aware of their safe work obligations, with most sites having specific Covid plans, and depending on the risks, separation and testing in place.

The hospitality sector has also led the attack on the new mandate with Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce saying the changes further sapped confidence.

Mr Bruce called for the government to develop an industry assistance package for hospitality owners and staff.

Operators have reported tanking trade, with turnover at some venues at its lowest point since the pandemic started.

Earlier this week Mr Bruce submitted a wishlist to the government on behalf of operators and said the removal of JobKeeper and other supports meant the industry was now dangerously close to collapse.

He said the industry was at crisis point and criticised the government for turning its back on an important cohort in the Territory’s economic fabric.

“Since New Year’s Eve many hospitality venues, from small family run coffee shops through to larger establishments, are now 50-90 per cent down if they open at all, many of the late-night traders are not,” Mr Bruce wrote.

“There are no support mechanisms from either Territory or commonwealth governments (while) the bills continue to roll in.

“Staff are losing shifts, both from loss of trade and when they become household contacts, and we face losing staff and businesses the longer this goes on.”

Hospitality NT’s wishlist included government support for businesses to assist keeping staff paid, reintroduction of a hardship register to assist with fixed costs, removal of different isolation rules between essential workers and all workers and removal of the Territory check-in system, especially in high vaccinated communities.

Other Covid mitigation wishlist measures include:

REMOVAL of the vaccine pass system from hospitality venues;

REMOVAL of the employee vaccination mandate outside of aged care, disability and health sectors;

COMMITMENT to minimise work from home arrangements in the public sector; and,

A CAMPAIGN to rebuild consumer confidence “shredded by daily fear conferences”.

“A clear road map is needed with times given for an end to all of these measures. Many in the community thought that if they got vaccinated their lives could return to normal,” Mr Bruce said.

“We need to power through and get back to normal as quickly as possible or we risk being caught in a ‘let it drip’ Covid quagmire all through this year limiting our ability to capitalise on any comeback.”

However, Chief Minister Michael Gunner dismissed the complaints, saying they were “irresponsible” and lower patronage was not down to health measures but “people making their own decisions to limit social interaction”.

There were 828 new Covid cases recorded in the NT on Saturday, with 111 in hospital. 

Outdoor mask mandate implemented

A TERRITORY-wide outdoor mask mandate will be implemented from 6pm Saturday night.

The mandate will be in place for a week, when the mandate will return to indoors only.

Health Minister Natasha Fyles said while the mandate applied to all people aged 12 and over, it did not apply to outdoor exercise or in situations when you could easily socially distance from others.

“You’ve started to see people take personal responsibility … it’s an extension of that,” Ms Fyles said.

“People should wear a mask when they are outdoors and they can't physically distance.”

The indoor mask mandate is “with us for some time”, Ms Fyles said.

It comes as the number of cases in the NT rises, with 4650 active cases in the Territory.

Ms Fyles said the rise in cases was expected as Territorians returned home at the end of the school holidays.

There are 111 people in hospital across the NT, including 10 people on oxygen and five people in the ICU.

There are 34 people in the Alice Springs Hospital, with three on oxygen and two in the ICU, while in Darwin there are 67 people in RDH with seven on oxygen and three in the ICU.

There are also three people in the Katherine hospital, three people in the Tennant Creek hospital and four in the Gove hospital.

Territory cases rise in second wave

THURSDAY UPDATE: AN UNEXPECTED surge in Covid-19 infections and hospitalisations in the Northern Territory is being described as a second wave.

A shock revision in Wednesday’s Covid-19 cases to 778 made it the worst day in terms of new infections since the pandemic began.

And there were an additional 626 cases on Thursday, partially fuelled by Territory families returning from interstate just before school goes back in session.

A jump in hospitalisations was also seen on Thursday, with 95 people admitted, up from 84 on Wednesday.

Fifteen people were requiring oxygen and four people were in intensive care.

Deputy chief health officer Dr Charles Pain said the increase in hospitalisations had been predicted in modelling.

But Dr Pain did flag the caseload being seen at the Territory’s hospitals was approaching a limit.

“We wouldn’t want to see it rise much further than this,” he said.

“Health services are meeting that demand, they’ve been preparing and planning for this.”

Dr Pain said one in 1000 infections in the Territory were ending up in intensive care.

“We expected to have to cope with this level of hospitalisations,” he said.

Dr Pain said the growth in cases seemed to suggest a “second peak” in infections, but urged people to remain calm and continue taking precautions.

“We’re obviously watching closely over the next few days … but it’s not going up at an exponential rate.”

Dr Pain said returning families from interstate were accounting for some of the increase, but major outbreaks in remote communities were also accounting for a growing portion of cases.

Despite growing calls from Indigenous communities and health organisations, Health Minister Natasha Fyles said there were no plans for tougher restrictions to curb infections in remote communities.

“We have continued to listen to the medical advice that sees us in a situation where we are managing Covid,” Ms Fyles said.

“We have got health measures in place to slow that spread and to manage the pandemic.”

One person died while Covid-positive in Tennant Creek, but of unrelated illness.

New record day for Territory Covid case numbers

THE Northern Territory has recorded 626 new cases, while the number of hospitalisations has climbed into the 90s.

As well as the new cases a further 278 infections have been backdated bringing the Wednesday numbers, previously at 492 have been increased to 778.

The number of hospitalisations has also shot up with 95 people now in Territory hospitals with Covid while 15 are currently on oxygen and four are in ICU.

A Tennant Creek man has died of a cardiac arrest while in the early stages of Covid but is not being counted as a Covid death by the NT Government.

Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the increasing case numbers were expected.

“These increasing case numbers were expected as we see more people returning to the Territory with school heading back next week,” Ms Fyles said.

“We expected these case numbers to rise and the vast majority of people just have a mild illness.”

Territory Covid hospitalisations continue to climb

HEALTH Minister Natasha Fyles has declared Covid is “everywhere in the Northern Territory” as hospitalisations continue to climb.

A total 492 new infections were recorded on Wednesday with 84 people currently being treated in Territory hospitals, including three in intensive care.

Of the cases in hospital, there were two in Royal Darwin Hospital’s mental health facility, which is now being treated as a red zone.

Ms Fyles said other sections of the hospital were being used to care for patients with mental illness.

“Covid is everywhere within the community and so we’ve enacted plans to try and stop the spread within the facility but continue to provide care,” she said.

“We do have a large number of staff that have had Covid or are close contacts and we’ve got those measures in place. We’re not seeing transmission through our facilities.

“What it means is we’re minimising contact within those wards and staff are wearing appropriate PPE and we’re utilising other parts of the hospital.”

The new infections brings the total number of active cases to 3208 including the first infection at Wallaby Beach in East Arnhem.

Nine more cases had been recorded at the Alice Springs Correctional Facility bringing the total number at the prison to 122, including 14 staff.

“We’ve got cases right across the NT and so we’re working with Aboriginal Medical partners to make sure that these cases are managed,” Ms Fyles said.

“We flattened that curve and we want to keep it that way stopping the transmission.

“We’re seeing the cases across the broader community but we’re also seeing them in the high risk settings so we’re working to manage them.”

Territory Covid cases jump on Tuesday after weekend dip

THE Northern Territory recorded 517 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday.

Of the roughly 3200 active infections in the Territory, 72 had been hospitalised.

There were 10 patients requiring oxygen and three patients in intensive care.

Included in the new cases were 31 cases from Galiwin’ku and 11 cases in Yuendumu.

There were 26 cases linked to a current cluster at the Batton Road Short Stay Accommodation facility in Darwin.

Lockdowns were still in effect for Milikapiti (until Thursday), in Gunyangara, Utopia Homelands and Wurrumiyanga (until Saturday) and in Galiwin’ku (until Monday next week).

There were lockouts in place in Alice Springs, Amoonguna, Yuendumu and Yuelamu until Sunday.

Cases expected to jump as school returns

CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner expects cases of Covid-19 in the Territory to rebound to around 450 infections a day when school returns next week.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday morning as part of a media blitz, Mr Gunner said the Territory’s outbreak presently had “very flat curves”.

“We’re pretty good at capturing interstate incursions with the test regime that we have, I believe we’ve got the best testing regime in the country,” he said.

The return to school on Monday is expected to contribute to increased numbers of cases, coinciding with families flying back into the NT from holidays.

“We probably anticipate the curve to go back up to that 450 a day average.”

Mr Gunner said a slight fall in the number of cases in Greater Darwin in recent days had been backed up by a “declining signal” of Covid-19 in the city’s sewage, suggesting the outbreak of coronavirus across the Top End was falling.

Chief health officer Dr Hugh Heggie said last week that 80 per cent of the Territory's Covid infections were of the more contagious Omicron variant. The remainder was the more dangerous Delta variant.

Tuesday’s Covid-19 figures are yet to be released.

Update to Territory Check-In App

CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has revealed the NT government is working on an update for the Territory Check In app that will alert users of the location and time of their potential exposure to Covid-19.

The revelation follows widespread criticism of the current notification system, in which Territorians have been receiving generic text messages from the Centre for Disease Control that encourage them to monitor for Covid-19 symptoms.

The text messages do not provide details of the time or location of exposure.

“I get people are curious. We’ll have an in-app solution soon that will let people know the location,” he told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

Mr Gunner said the NT government was not able to do the update itself as the app is owned by the ACT government.

“We’ve been working closely with (the ACT government),” he said.

“Obviously we get the data from the app and then we’re forced to set it out by text message. “What we’re going to be able to move to soon is that when you open up the app it will advise you that you’ve been at all these sites at the same time as someone.”

Mr Gunner wouldn’t provide a launch date but said the update would be available “very, very soon”.

The key to tackling the Omicron variant was being able to respond at speed, according to Mr Gunner.

“We need to be fast,” he said.

“I want you to be thinking about your symptoms as soon as possible. I get that there’s some people that don’t like the texts. It’s not meant to be a PR exercise – just as long as you read it and you’ve thought about whether you’re symptomatic, that’s all I care about.”

Mr Gunner also revealed not all close and casual contacts are being notified when they visit the same place as a positive case. He said text messages are only being sent out to those who have visited several exposure sites.

“When you get one of those texts, it’s likely that you’ve been to 10, 20 or 30 locations at the same time and someone who is positive,” he said.

The NT government’s notification system has come under fire in recent weeks over several operation bungles.

On December 31, Health Minister Natasha Fyles revealed a batch of text messages sent to Territorians notifying them they had visited an exposure site were sent in error.

Weeks later, Mr Gunner fronted the media to explain that no messages had been sent for a 7-day period and the government was only alerted to the issue after requesting an update.

Originally published as Covid NT: Large proportion of Territorians’ lifestyles impacted