Howard Springs quarantine facility to increase international capacity to 850 per fortnight within weeks

THE number of repatriated Australians to be flown into Darwin and be housed at Howard Springs quarantine facility will be increased from 500 to 850 people per fortnight

THE number of repatriated Australians housed at Darwin’s Howard Springs quarantine facility will increase to 850 people per fortnight as Chief Minister Michael Gunner says coronavirus will be “with us for most, if not all, of 2021”.

Mr Gunner, during a Monday afternoon press briefing, revealed the number of repatriated Australians housed at Howard Springs will be upped from 500 a fortnight to 850 a fortnight in “the coming weeks” as part of the NT’s existing bilateral deal with the Commonwealth government.

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This agreement, as reported by the NT News in late November, allows the Territory to take up to 1000 international arrivals per fortnight.

Following a national cabinet meeting last week, caps on international arrivals in NSW, Western Australia, in Queensland were reduced by 50 per cent until February 15.

Mr Gunner said the “greatest” limit on the Northern Territory’s international quarantine arrangements were acquiring enough staff rather than physical constraints.

The Howard Springs quarantine facility’s international wing is run by the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC), while the domestic wing is run by NT Health and Territory Families.

It comes as the NT removed Greater Brisbane’s hotspot status at 11am on Monday, in response to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announcement that the capital city’s three-day lockdown would be coming to an end as scheduled.

Mr Gunner confirmed there are “close to” 400 people at the Howard Springs quarantine facility and the Alice Springs quarantine facility who have travelled from the Greater Brisbane area that will be released today.

“Obviously the fact that there is no community transmission (in Queensland) is the key reason we can remove the hotspot,” he said.

“But the precautions that Queenslanders will be taking for the next 10 days with masks, also gives us extra confidence.”

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The NT’s restrictions on travellers coming from greater Sydney remain.

“It is pretty clear that as much as we might have liked to have left the coronavirus back in 2020, it is going to be with us for most, if not all of 2021,” Mr Gunner said.