The NT News looks back at a whirlwind year of COVID-19
THE coronavirus pandemic ensured that 2020 was a year like no other in the Northern Territory. From restrictions to repatriation flights, here are some of the key events of the past 12 months
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- Third cattle ship crew member in Darwin diagnosed with COVID
- Seven new COVID-19 cases, including baby boy, detected among Darwin arrivals
THE coronavirus pandemic ensured 2020 was a year like no other in the Northern Territory.
The NT moved quickly to slam its borders shut as COVID-19 began to take hold, and was the only jurisdiction in Australia without a coronavirus death by the end of 2020.
Despite recording 75 confirmed cases over the year, none of those cases involved community transmission.
Here are some of the key coronavirus events of the past 12 months.
January
China reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, in the Hubei province, and a novel coronavirus was eventually identified.
Within weeks it turned into a pandemic as rapid transmission occurred across the world. Australia got its first case on January 25.
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February
Australia banned foreign arrivals who had travelled through China in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus.
On February 9, 266 Aussie evacuees were flown out of Wuhan to Darwin where they quarantined at the former Manigurr-ma workers’ village in Howard Springs.
A week later, about 200 passengers who were stuck on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan after a COVID-19 outbreak were also sent to quarantine at Howard Springs.
Two cruise ship passengers, a 24-year-old SA woman and a 78-year-old WA man, were flown to their home states after testing positive to COVID-19 on February 21.
The elderly man later died in Perth, making him the first Australian to die after contracting coronavirus.
March
The first confirmed case to test positive to COVID-19 in the NT was a male tourist from Sydney on March 4. The man shopped at Woolworths in Darwin City and checked in to the Ramada Zen Quarter Hotel before seeking medical treatment when he became unwell.
On March 19, a Darwin man in his mid 30s and a woman, aged 21, also tested positive after returning home on a flight overseas. A Territory couple, who disembarked the Ruby Princess cruise ship in Sydney, became the fourth and fifth people to test positive on March 21.
On March 23, Territorians were forced to face the strict and harsh reality of the global coronavirus pandemic restrictions that finally reached our doorstep.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison ordered that pubs, clubs, cafes, restaurants, gyms and casinos, among many other indoor gatherings, would be closed or restricted. The shock closures saw hundreds of out of work Territorians standing in queues outside Centrelink offices the following day.
In a bid to protect vulnerable remote communities from the impacts of COVID-19, the federal government used the Biosecurity Act to restrict travel into and out of 76 communities.
The NT border slammed shut to the rest of the country for the first time on March 24. On the same day, a Darwin man in his 70s became the sixth confirmed case to test positive to coronavirus after returning home from Sydney.
On March 26, a Katherine couple, aged in their 60s, tested positive after returning from a holiday in South Africa. A Central Australian police officer and his partner also tested positive the same day in Harts Range, after travelling back from Austria, as well as a Queensland woman in her 20s who arrived in Darwin from London. A Darwin woman in her 50s, who had returned from Pakistan, tested positive on March 27, and a man in his 30s also tested positive after returning from South America.
A cruise ship passenger in her 40s tested positive on March 31 after returning from Europe on the MSC Fantasia. At the end of March, the PM rolled out the JobKeeper wage subsidy and Chief Minister Michael Gunner introduced 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine for all non-essential interstate travellers.
April
The NT’s Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie began the month by putting fly-in fly-out workers on notice, saying they would need to have detailed COVID-19 plans approved by him before they could enter the NT.
On April 2, three more Territorians tested positive to COVID-19, which included a woman who had returned from Bali, an Alice Springs woman who had returned from the Gold Coast, and an Alice Springs woman in her 20s coming back from the UK.
Another four cases were recorded on April 3. On April 5, a Darwin child under two years old tested positive to COVID-19 after self quarantining with a close family contact infected with the virus after returning from overseas.
The child had two school aged siblings who attended Leanyer Primary School, but the school community was told there was very low risk to other students due to the timeline.
The next day, a Darwin woman, aged in her 30s, also tested positive after returning from Sydney. As school holidays came to a close in April, Territory students were told they would have to show up to school in term two, despite other jurisdictions moving to close schools in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Territorians were instructed to privately commemorate Anzac Day at home on April 25.
May
The NT became one of the first jurisdictions in the country to begin relaxing COVID-19 restrictions, with Territorians allowed again to go camping, fishing and swimming at parks across the NT from May 1. On the same day, four Australian Defence Force personnel, who tested positive for coronavirus while serving in the Middle East, were flown into Darwin.
The Department of Defence later revealed two of those four subsequently returned negative results, while the other two, who tested positive again, remained in Royal Darwin Hospital.
On May 6, government data revealed close to 12,000 jobs had been lost in the NT since strict lockdown measures were imposed. Mr Gunner later said, when he saw the long queues outside Centrelink after strict coronavirus lockdown measures forced businesses to shut, that he thought: “F**k me, that’s my fault”.
On May 13, he created a new commission to lead an economic recovery strategy for the NT. On May 15, Territorians were allowed to go back to the pub with the easing of stage two of COVID-19 restrictions in the NT. People also were allowed to return to cafes, beaches and dining venues across the Territory. On May 22, all of the NT’s active COVID-19 cases to date had been cleared after 30 people had recovered from the virus.
June
Thousands of Territorians were able to head back to work on June 5 with the easing of stage three COVID-19 restrictions. All businesses with COVID-19 safety plans were allowed to reopen, including casinos, nightclubs, cinemas and adult entertainment venues.
Territorians were also able to resume all sports and competitions with spectators, go to the cinema, attend a bar without food being consumed, go to a salon or tattoo parlour and attend an event with over 500 people with an approved COVID-19 safety plan. From June 15, people arriving in the Territory from interstate were allowed to self-isolate in a place of their choosing after the government scrapped mandatory hotel quarantine.
July
Territory Day celebrations looked a bit different on July 1 after the Chief Minister made the call to cancel Cracker Night. Instead, people were encouraged to make the most of the government’s $200 Territory tourism voucher scheme which was rolled out on the same day.
On July 8, a 21-year-old US marine tested positive for COVID-19 after flying into Darwin to join the Marine Rotational Force. About 2500 US troops were originally scheduled to arrive in the NT, but a rotation of about 1200 US Marines was later cleared to arrive.
The Territory rolled out the welcome mat to interstate arrivals on July 17 as borders finally reopened, though travellers from the coronavirus hot spots of Victoria and greater metropolitan Sydney remained locked out.
The Chief Minister said those arriving from hot spots from July 17 would be sent to the Howard Springs quarantine facility at the cost of $2500, after scrapping hotel quarantine.
On July 24, two men in Nhulunbuy became the first people charged with providing false information on statutory declarations upon arriving in the Territory. On July 31, a Darwin man, who was flying home to the NT via Melbourne with his family, while waiting on results of his COVID-19 test, found out he had the virus mid-flight. His partner also tested positive the next day, and they were sent to RDH.
August
A 27-year-old Northern Territory police officer resigned and was fined $5000 on August 1 after breaching Territory border checkpoint requirements with four other people.
On August 3, traditional owners set up a blockade outside Uluru to stop tourists from Brisbane who had recently arrived from entering the park.
It came after the NT had recently declared parts of Queensland, including Brisbane, COVID-19 hot spots. Those changes also forced the BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley to be pushed back a week, taking place on August 15-16.
Following the border debacle, the Chief Minister urged Territorians to stay home this year and cancel their Christmas holiday plans.
September
A man in his 60s who travelled from Victoria to Darwin returned a “low positive” result while in quarantine in Howard Springs on September 28. He previously had COVID-19 in Victoria and was taken to RDH for treatment.
October
New Zealanders were welcomed into the Territory from October 16, under a new agreement between the New Zealand, Australian and Territory governments.
The same day, the PM made a deal with the Northern Territory to use its Howard Springs facility to house as many as 5000 repatriated Australians in quarantine. Under the arrangements, the federal government agreed to foot the quarantine bill for all returning Australians, expected to be $8000 per person.
They arrived on flights from the United Kingdom, South Africa, Germany and India — with the first flight from London touching down on October 23. The 3000-bed Howard Springs facility was separated into different bubbles for domestic and international arrivals, with the former being overseen by the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre.
A 31-year-old woman tested positive after being repatriated to Darwin from India on October 27. Four more repatriated Aussies on the same flight, including two children, tested positive in Howard Springs two days later.
November
A baby under the age of one tested positive to COVID-19 in quarantine on November 5. On November 9, a 29-year-old man became the seventh repatriated Australian to test positive to COVID-19 arriving in Darwin from London. On November 12, a 32-year-old woman who arrived on the same London flight also tested positive for COVID-19.
The NT recorded five more cases of coronavirus among newly repatriated Australians flying in on November 13. All of them related to flights into Darwin from London and Delhi.
Two days later, a 43-year-old man also tested positive after returning on a repatriation flight from India on November 11. A 64-year-old woman and a 59-year-old man, who arrived on the same flight from India, were diagnosed with the virus on November 25. Two days later, a 39-year-old woman, a 58-year-old man and a four-year-old girl also tested positive having returned from New Delhi.
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December
A 52-year-old woman tested positive to COVID-19 in the Howard Springs facility on December 1 after arriving on a repatriation flight from New Dehli. Two days later, two men in their 40s, a woman and a man in their 30s and two women in their 50s, also tested positive after arriving from New Delhi on November 29. An eight-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy tested positive on December 8 after arriving on a New Dehli flight on November 24. A 30-year-old woman then tested positive on December 10 after arriving on the same flight.
An 88-year-old man arriving from India and an 18-year-old man arriving from London tested positive on December 14, with the elderly man later taken to RDH for non-COVID-19 health issues.
The first flight from Germany touched down in Darwin on December 13. Shortly after, a 32-year-old man and a 63-year old woman, who had both arrived on the Frankfurt repatriation flight, tested positive on December 15.
A two-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, who had arrived on a flight from Chennai, tested positive on December 17. The next day, a 37-year-old man tested positive after arriving from Germany on December 13.
On December 19, a 77-year-old woman from Chennai and a 56-year-old woman from Paris also tested positive.
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