Cairns woman tests positive for Covid-19 in NT
The NT government has confirmed that a Cairns woman has tested positive to Covid-19, however they do not believe she brought the virus from interstate.
Northern Territory
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UPDATE 2PM: HEALTH authorities are still trying to work out where the Top End’s Covid outbreak came from after the cluster grew to three on Saturday.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner confirmed a woman who had flown from Cairns to Darwin on October 29 has tested positive to the virus.
Health experts believe she was most likely infected in Darwin, because she only developed symptoms on Saturday.
She spent time with the index case, a man in his 20s who visited several different locations including the Monsoons nightclub on Mitchell St.
Popular spots such as the Jetty Restaurant and Snapper Rocks were added to the exposure site list on Friday night, with cases visiting on October 30.
There are now 100 close contacts from high risk exposure sites, with NT Health contact tracers working to locate roughly 20.
In Katherine, where a number of busy locations including the Katherine Club and the local Woolworths have been deemed casual exposure sites, residents have turned out for testing.
There were 990 tests done in Darwin and 309 in Katherine in the 24 hours to Saturday morning.
After long wait times on Friday, especially in Katherine, acting chief health officer Dr Charles Pain said capacity had been upped.
“We’ve got good testing capacity (in Katherine),” Dr Pain said.
“I know there was some difficulty, there were a number of people that came forward from Tindal because they had been identified as being (at an) exposure site, but we’ve managed that over the past 24 hours.”
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said vaccination bookings had also surged as a result of the Katherine lockdown and Darwin lockout.
“Yesterday was the second highest vaccination day on record for the Northern Territory,” Mr Gunner said.
“More than 2150 jabs went into arms, including excellent numbers at Coolalinga, Palmerston and Katherine.“
Mr Gunner said more appointments were available on Sunday and urged any stragglers to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
“Every person who gets vaccinated is adding a layer of protection to the Territory,” Mr Gunner said.
It’s one more person who is less likely to catch Covid, one more person who is less likely to spread Covid, one more person who is less likely to get seriously sick from Covid, one more person less likely to die from Covid.”
Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said compliance with lockdown and lockout rules in Katherine and Darwin respectively was ”very good”.
Mr Chalker said some authorities had established more checkpoints around Katherine after attempts to “push the boundaries”.
Further screening was also being done at airports to ensure travellers from Darwin to locations such as Alice Springs were only flying for essential reasons.
UPDATE 11AM: THE Northern Territory has confirmed one new case of Covid-19 bringing the current cluster to three positive cases.
It comes after Queensland authorities revealed that a Cairns woman who flew to the NT had tested positive for Covid-19.
At this stage the NT Government don’t believe she brought the virus from interstate and are continuing to search for the origin.
The woman was a close contact of the original detected case and is known to have had a single dose of the vaccine.
She returned a positive result on Friday evening.
Authorities have identified 100 close contacts with 80 already contacted including 19 that returned negative tests.
EARLIER: A CAIRNS woman who flew into the Northern Territory has tested positive for Covid-19, Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has revealed.
Ms D’Ath said further information was being sought from the NT government.
It is not yet known whether the woman was infectious while in Queensland.
It is not yet known whether the woman has any connection to a mystery case who tested positive for Covid in Katherine this week, sending the Top End town into lockdown.
NT health authorities have been scrambling to determine where the man, aged in his 20s and who was unvaccinated, was infected.
The Monsoons nightclub in Darwin’s CBD was on Friday singled out as a place where the man most likely picked up the infection.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner is expected to provide an update later on Saturday.
More to come.
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