Coronavirus update: Pandemic clinic opens at Royal Darwin Hospital
A PANDEMIC clinic to test people for coronavirus will open at the Royal Darwin Hospital as health authorities finalise plans to prevent a further spread of the virus in the NT
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A PANDEMIC clinic to test people for COVID-19 (coronavirus) will soon open at the Royal Darwin Hospital as health authorities finalise plans to prevent a further spread of the virus in the Northern Territory.
Health Minister Natasha Fyles revealed the pandemic clinic will open at the hospital on Monday, where anyone in the Territory with coronavirus symptoms can present to.
It comes after a 52-year-old tourist in Darwin tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday.
The man is now being held in isolation at RDH in a negative pressure room.
Deputy NT Chief Health Officer Di Stephens said the hospital had the only laboratory in the Territory that could provide results for COVID-19 tests.
She said more than 100 coronavirus tests have been done in the NT so far, all of which have been negative before a 52-year-old man’s positive result on Wednesday.
Health authorities are expected to finalise the Northern Territory’s official pandemic plans on Friday and release it on Monday.
“It will be sent to all stakeholders and go to all of the government and non-government health services to help them to know what it is they need to do in each and every community to prepare for the potential of this virus getting into the communities,” Dr Stephens said.
“We are concerned about the remote situation.
“In many of our remote communities we have crowded housing situations which do not help us to institute those social distancing mechanisms to combat this virus.”
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