Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced 11 new Covid cases were recorded
Eleven new Covid-19 cases were recorded overnight, including a woman who left the hard lockdown in Binjari.
Northern Territory
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UPDATE: ELEVEN new cases of Covid-19 were recorded overnight, including a woman from Binjari who was infectious in Katherine.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced the total number of cases from the cluster had increased to 51.
Mr Gunner said four people, including the positive woman, had left the hard lockdown Binjari area by walking to a nearby caravan park, then caught a taxi and travelled into Katherine.
“The woman did not know that she had Covid,” Mr Gunner said.
“She was at large in Katherine and she was infectious.”
The woman was found on Wednesday morning and 11 close contacts as a result entered isolation.
Mr Gunner said the further 10 positive cases were all in isolation. Eight tested positive while at the Centre for National Resilience and two were in isolation in Katherine.
The pair who tested positive in Katherine are children who were in isolation with their father.
A third child tested positive in the Centre for National Resilience. Two new cases were from Robinson River and five from Binjari.
Mr Gunner also announced a casual contact site was now classified as a serious close contact site: the McDonald’s in Katherine on November 13 between 11am to 11.25am.
At least four people who tested positive were in the restaurant at this time. Anyone who was at the restaurant at this time must contact authorities immediately.
Wastewater testing for Rockhole and the Katherine Golf Course catchment returned negative.
The Binjari results have returned a weaker positive, the Bicentennial Rd in Katherine catchment remains positive, and a weak presumptive positive was returned in Berrimah in Darwin.
EARLIER: CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner is expected to update Territorians on the growing cluster in Katherine.
Mr Gunner will provide his daily Covid-19 press conference at 11am.
Katherine’s lockdown was extended to December 4, after Mr Gunner revealed on Tuesday another three locally acquired cases including an infant.
The new infections brought the total number of cases in the Darwin-Katherine-Robinson River cluster to 40.
There are five people being treated in the Royal Darwin Hospital with the virus.
On Tuesday Covid fragments were found in wastewater in the Bicentennial and Katherine golf course areas of Katherine, leading health authorities to suspect several more cases may yet be found in the community.
The Indigenous communities of Binjari and Rockhole are both in a ‘hard lockdown’, with residents confined to their homes and ADF personnel tasked with dropping off essential supplies.
More to come.
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