Asymptomatic Territory COVID-19 cases raise questions over our testing approach
WITH the most recent case of COVID-19 detected in the Territory being someone who was not showing any symptoms, questions have been raised about our approach to testing
Northern Territory
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WITH the most recent case of COVID-19 detected in the Northern Territory being someone who was not showing any symptoms, questions have been raised about the Territory’s approach to coronavirus testing.
A 37-year-old woman tested positive at Howard Springs after arriving in Darwin aboard a repatriation flight from Frankfurt, Germany, on the weekend.
The NT government said the woman was asymptomatic at the time of testing.
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When questioned by the NT News, Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the government would be “agile” in its approach to COVID-19 testing.
“Of course, it is tricky but we follow a scientific and clinical regimen so we know that we don’t have community transmission cases spreading in our community,” Ms Fyles said.
“If that was to change then the testing advice around it would certainly change.”
Ms Fyles said one change could be to test all people who had been in a particular location, regardless of whether they had symptoms.
“We’ve seen interstate, testing people that may be asymptomatic but have been at certain locations so we are following the clinical advice,” she said.
“It’s kept us safe today and it will continue to be agile and respond to the community’s needs.” Ms Fyles said the NT would begin wastewater testing for COVID-19 in the coming months, making it the last jurisdiction to do so.
She said it had taken so long to begin widespread wastewater testing as authorities didn’t want to alarm the public with false positives.
“The information from our health professionals is we need to be targeted with the testing that we’re doing,” Ms Fyles said.
“The virus can take many weeks or months to shred.
“We saw an individual that had previously had the illness, and because they were tested in the Territory it picked up a low positive result.
“That’s the type of example, in terms of if we were testing without community transmission we’d be picking up old cases which might cause alarm within the community.”
Ms Fyles said she was confident the Territory would be ready to roll out a COVID-19 vaccine, saying the first vaccine would be approved in “the coming weeks”.
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“We know the two main vaccines – one is a little easier in terms of the supply distribution chain,” she said.
“The other vaccine does need to be kept at an extremely cold temperature.
“But all these factors are being worked through in how we would roll out the vaccine in the Northern Territory.”
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