Federal support called to fix ‘catastrophic failures’: Covid ‘ripping out-of-control’ through community

Covid has ‘ripped out-of-control’ in Aboriginal communities across the Northern Territory, with almost a third of cases on Saturday coming from remote.

UPDATE: Covid has ‘ripped out-of-control’ in Aboriginal communities across the Northern Territory, with almost a third of cases on Saturday coming from remote.

According to AMSANT data of the 828 cases more than 300 came from remote communities, a further 154 came from Alice Springs Correctional Centre - which is disproportionally Indigenous.

AMSANT chief executive John Paterson said Covid-19 has ‘ripped out-of-control’ and the Federal Government needs to provide urgent support ahead of school returning this week.

“It’s the perfect storm (for Omicron) to just overwhelm us, we have communities flooded in, foods, RAT tests and masks all in short supply and staff spread too thin,” he said.

“What we need is the Federal Government to deploy defence force support. We are calling for temporary shelters to be put up in some communities so our people can isolate away from overcrowded homes. We also need a surge workforce to roll out boosters while also helping to test, trace and treat our people.”

AMSANT has supported calls from Central Land Council and Central Australian Aboriginal Congress to lockdown central Australia amid climbing cases in vulnerable communities.

Mr Paterson also said the NT government had ignored his calls for transparent sharing of data.

“I want to know how many Aboriginal people are testing positive each day, we need to know how many of our people are in hospital, how many are needing oxygen and how many are in ICU,” he said.

“That assists us with our planning with making sure we have the resources in the right place.”

According to data on provided by the NT government on Thursday 90 per cent of covid-19 patients in hospital are Indigenous.

At Friday’s press conference the Chief Medical Officer denied Covid-19 was disproportionately affecting Aboriginal people, despite Indigenous people only making up 30 per cent of the Territory’s population.

EARLIER: A BAGOT woman has isolated on her veranda in a desperate attempt to not spread Covid-19.

After reporting her positive test to the Centre of Disease Control (CDC) the woman waited almost two days before being transported to the Howard Springs quarantine facility.

As a result of the delay the woman was forced to go back inside, where all nine of her family members have since tested positive — including a two-year-old child.

The Bagot community has recorded more than 35 cases.

The community is reeling after a woman passed from Covid-19, earlier this month.

In a joint letter to the NT News on Friday community leaders Marita Mummery and Natalie Harwood said there was no urgency in the response from department of health or CDC.

“There are a number of cases where CDC have not come to pick people up, which has led to the spread,” the letter said.

“Several phones calls have been made to the Covid line, however no one would come for 48 or sometimes 72 hours.”

Danila Dilba chief executive Rob McPhee said the government response was “not good enough”.

“Testing and removing people from community quickly is critical to stemming the spread of Covid-19,” he said.  

“The government has made a case that it is not viable to lockdown the community, so instead we will mobilise a team with Larrakia (Saturday).”

A joint initiative between the Larrakia Aboriginal Corporation, Danila Dilba and NT Health will test as many residents and transport any positive cases to Howard Springs.

The government has denied Omicron is disproportionally affecting Aboriginal communities.

“Historically the burden of disease among Indigenous people is higher than the general population,” said deputy chief health officer Marco Briceno.  

Aboriginal people account for 90 per cent of the NT’s Covid hospitalisations.

EARLIER: Bagot community is calling for a lockdown as Covid case numbers climb.

Earlier this month a woman was left for more than 48 hours at her Bagot home, which community leaders said is happening again.

“There are a number of known cases where CDC have not come to pick them up which has lead to the spread in the community,” community leader Natalie Harwood said.

“Several phones calls have been made to the Covid line, however no one would come for 48 or sometimes 72 hours.”

Ms Harwood explained one woman was so scared to spread Covid to her family she isolated on her verendah, however, because of the delay she was forced to go back inside.

“Since then all nine other people in that house have tested positive, including a 2 year-old baby.”

Ms Harwood said the community is desperate for a lockdown which will help stem the spread “The community is incredibly transient and we need to stop the spread both in and out,” she said.

Currently, Ms Harwood said this outbreak has included more than 35 cases. Earlier this month the community mourned the passing of their first Covid case.

Danila Dilba has also come out in full support of the community.

“We fully support the community leaders calls for this,” said chief executive Rob McPhee.

NT News understands the Chief Health Officer has received a letter from medical services calling for the community’s lockdown, which will be discussed in a meeting later today.

However, the Gunner government has firmly denied the community will enter a lockdown.

EARLIER: THE Territory’s top Aboriginal leaders have called the government’s Covid response a “catastrophic failure”.

In an open letter to NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner, Central Land Council (CLC), Central Australian Aboriginal Congress and AMSANT have called for an urgent lockdown of Central Australia, along with a number of other Covid suppression measures.

On Thursday the NT News obtained the letter which said the government’s “catastrophic failures” were foreseen.

Following calls from Congress on Monday that warned the government of a “tsunami of Covid cases” the letter detailed “significant failures by government”.

“The spread of Covid now appears to be out of control in Aboriginal communities in Alice Springs and Central Australia. Many of the issues we are facing were foreseen, and plans were made to address them,” the letter read.

“There is a lag between infections and hospitalisations, it is too early to become complacent and suggest that the rising case numbers will not lead to severe disease and deaths.”

The letter calls for swifter testing and tracing through increased support, including planning with the Australian Government including the Australian Defence Force to ensure their support.

Currently 90 per cent of Covid-19 patients in Territory hospitals are Indigenous — 20 per cent increase since Monday.

Josie Douglas

The Territory now has active outbreaks in all five regions and several remote communities.

Yuendumu has been in a lockout since January 15 where people have attempted to isolate under trees due to overcrowding.

On Thursday, 45 people were in Alice Springs Hospital, while the correctional facility cluster grew to 128.

In the press conference, Health Minister Natasha Fyles said testing rates were not high enough in Central Australia.

Ms Fyles said the government continued to follow medical advice which included enacting community pandemic response plans.

“Each community has a pandemic response plan and there are elements learnt from the natural disasters that we often see... that feeds into commands and then they feed into the Emergency Operations Centre,” she said.

Read the full letter

Open Letter to The Hon Michael Gunner MLA, Chief Minister of the Northern Territory

Dear Chief Minister,

As Aboriginal organisations representing our communities across the Northern Territory, we are writing to you about the rapidly escalating COVID-19 outbreak in Central Australia.

We have been advocating continuously for firm action to slow the outbreak since it began in the early days of 2022. However, our requests have been ignored, or action taken too late or on too small a scale to make a real difference.

There has been a significant failure by government agencies in Central Australia to put into practice the plans agreed with your government before the outbreak.

This has directly led to Covid spreading out of control in the Aboriginal communities of Central Australia and beyond.

Because there is a lag between infections and hospitalisations, it is too early to become complacent and suggest that the rising case numbers will not lead to severe disease and deaths.

We don’t think we should have been put in the situation where it is primarily Aboriginal people who are being asked to take the risk that Omicron is only a mild virus, when public health measures properly implemented could have prevented many of the cases we are now seeing.

We are now left with no alternative but to call upon you to intervene and impose an immediate lockdown across Central Australia.

This is our last chance to flatten the curve of new infections and hospitalisations and save lives that will otherwise be lost.

Emergency Response - Implementation failures

The spread of Covid now appears to be out of control in the Aboriginal community in Alice Springs and Central Australia. Many of the issues we are facing were foreseen, and plans made to address them. But there has been a catastrophic failure by government to discharge its responsibility to all Northern Territory residents by implementing these plans in Central Australia.

Julianne's best pics of 2021 Covid-19 taking its toll on NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner. Picture Julianne Osborne

The failures include:

•late introduction of a vaccine pass system, which should have been introduced in the second half of 2021 to encourage people to get vaccinated

•late introduction of a mask mandate for high risk events, leading to low compliance at New Year’s Eve events, at least one of which was a ‘superspreader’ incident

•slow and inadequate follow up of those who had attended the critical New Year’s Eve event, including some who became infected and returned to overcrowded households in Alice Springs houses, town camps and remote communities including Yuendumu. There was an inadequate Test, Trace, Isolate and Quarantine (TTIQ) response even though the initial outbreak was in Alice Springs

•failure to promptly list the New Year’s Eve party as a public exposure site so that people who had attended could be aware of their additional risk

•when positive cases were located in crowded households, they were left at home for more than 48 hours by which time the virus had spread within and between households and then to other town camps and houses. This was in contravention of all agreed plans to remove positive cases immediately from households where they were unable to safely self-isolate

•failure to stand up adequate supervised isolation facilities, despite numerous urgent requests to do so. This led to long delays in removing positive cases from crowded households, with many of these people leaving their houses in the meantime. While the NT Police have done a great job in finding people who were supposed to be self-isolating at home, it was often not until many others had been exposed to the virus

•lack of adequate resources for testing and contact tracing, with the burden for much of this work transferred from the responsible government agencies to Aboriginal organisations who were already overburdened with providing health and community services

•failure to seek additional health and logistical support from Australian Government agencies, including the Australian Defence Force which could for example have been used to stand up an additional isolation facility in Alice Springs and/or provide immediate transport of positive cases to the Centre for National Resilience

•failure to set up and share adequate data systems to keep track of cases by locality over time on a daily basis so the trend of what is happening is clear.

Immediate steps required:

We are now calling upon your Government to impose an immediate lockdown in Central Australia to stop the movement of people and flatten the curve of new infections and hospitalisations.

It is vital to act now because we know that if allowed to continue to spread, this virus will seek out the vulnerable and the unvaccinated, whether Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, across Central Australia and beyond.

A lockdown will allow time for:

•primary contacts to be tested, identified and where appropriate removed to supervised isolation in the Centre for National Resilience or regional isolation facilities as soon as these can be developed

•effective new oral treatments for Covid to be distributed across Central Australia and especially to remote communities

•a Rapid Response Team to be stood up for Alice Springs and remote communities in Central Australia with a particular focus on testing and reactive vaccination

•adequate numbers of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) and N95 masks to be distributed

•effective data systems to be established (and shared) so new cases and trends can be monitored in real time

•more people over the age of 18 to receive their crucial third or booster dose of a Covid vaccine and for children to be vaccinated

•further consultation with Land Councils and other organisations about how best to reduce movement into and between remote communities

•urgent consultation and planning with the Australian Government including the Australian Defence Force to ensure their support.

Chief Minister, despite the failures so far in Central Australia, it is not too late to act.

We urge you to ignore those who say it is too difficult, too late, or too expensive, or that the Omicron variant of Covid is a mild disease and that we need not worry about it.

There is a way forward, and we are counting on you to act urgently to protect the residents of Central Australia.

Signed by Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, Central Land Council, AMSANT and Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corperation

EARLIER: THE Central Land Council (CLC) has joined calls for more drastic public health measures to stem the tide of Covid-19 cases impacting remote NT communities.

CLC chief executive Les Turner said an urgent lockdown of remote communities was a necessary “circuit breaker”.

It’s a step back from the wide-reaching requests of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress.

On Tuesday, Congress’ acting boss called for a Central Australia-wide lockdown.

Mr Turner said the virus spread in remote communities was “out of control” and accused the government of inaction and underreporting positive cases out bush.

“When our overworked health services which have been left to carry the can on the ground are telling us that the positive cases they are picking up are not reflected in the official figures we should all be very alarmed,” he said.

“We all use the same hospitals and will be very much in it together when they become overwhelmed.”

Mr Turner called on the NT and federal governments to collaborate to enforce a lockdown in remote communities across the Territory.

“We need the police and the Australian Defence Force to staff road blocks to restrict movement between communities and into regional centres, to provide residents with remote isolation facilities and a surge workforce to help test, trace, isolate, quarantine and vaccinate them,” he said.

“Our people and their organisations are doing their bit. They now need both governments to stop burying their heads in the sand, face facts and back them.”

EARLIER: The Central Australian Aboriginal Congress is calling for more serious and effective public health measures to be put in place urgently.

“We need to see sharp and serious action to respond to what are growing case numbers in Alice Springs and surrounding Central Australian communities.” Congress acting chief executive Josie Douglas said.

“The lockout isn’t working. People are still moving around, and the virus is still spreading among vaccinated and unvaccinated people.”

Ms Douglas said hospitalisation were now increasing, along with ICU admissions.

“78 people in hospital in the NT is the equivalent of 2800 people in NSW,” she said.

“We are now on a par with NSW but we will pass this peak without decisive action and our health system has less capacity.”

“We are calling for a complete lockdown of Central Australia to be implemented urgently. A Tsunami of Covid cases is coming and we need a circuit breaker.

CEO Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Dr Josie Douglas

“Congress knows from our own experience that the curve is not flattening among Aboriginal people in Central Australia, and the community needs to know this.” Continued Ms Douglas.

“The stop in movement that would be forced by a lockdown, along with support from the Government with contact tracing, testing and isolation, would mean that we can get on top of the emerging case numbers that we continue to report. It would buy precious time for a surge workforce to be assembled and redeployed. The Commonwealth Government has a critical role here and we call on them to come to the aid of the Northern Territory as we stare down this disaster.”

Congress have been responding to the health crisis that is rapidly unfolding on the ground, providing testing, contact tracing and care to as many people as possible for the health service.

“Congress has responded in every way possible, redeploying staff, closing supplementary services and clinics, and still we can’t plug the holes made by the Territory government’s seeming lack of care for Aboriginal people.” Ms Douglas stated.

“We were told in every plan that preceded this outbreak that the focus would be to test, trace, isolate and quarantine. Instead, we have a response that seems to have left people to fend for themselves in overcrowded houses where it is not possible to safely isolate without spreading the virus to others. Lengthy delays in getting people into isolation has contributed to the spike we are seeing in positive cases.” She continued.

“We have hand our hands extended every step of the way looking to collaborate and to partner, but we have been left to try to do it all ourselves. This was not part of any plan.

“We ask the Government to look after all Central Australians by getting this emerging crisis under control and to do what is needed; a circuit breaking lockdown.”

Originally published as Federal support called to fix ‘catastrophic failures’: Covid ‘ripping out-of-control’ through community