Chief Minister Michael Gunner reveals teenager tests positive for Covid, Rockhole to transition into normal lockdown
The Territory’s acting chief health officer has warned people not to get their hopes up, despite saying a decision about easing Katherine’s lockdown was ‘imminent’.
Northern Territory
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UPDATE: KATHERINE is inching closer to an easing of restrictions after just one new case of Covid-19 was detected in the Territory on Thursday.
Acting chief health officer Dr Charles Pain said a transition from lockdown to lockout was “imminent” in the Top End town amid a series of positive indications, including the town’s double-dose vaccination rate edging toward the 80 per cent mark.
The case was a teenager from Binjari who was believed to be in isolation at Howard Springs for all of his infectious period.
The Darwin-Katherine-Robinson River cluster currently stands at 52 cases.
A ‘hard lockdown’ in the Katherine Indigenous community of Rockhole was eased on Thursday amid negative wastewater and no positive test results.
Residents in Rockhole will be able to leave their homes for one of five essential reasons, and will not be able to travel to the nearby community of Binjari which remains in hard lockdown.
Wastewater results from the Bicentennial Rd catchment returned a weak positive. There was a positive in the Martin Pl sub-catchment and a negative result was returned in Berrimah after a ‘presumptive positive’ result on Wednesday.
Dr Pain said a transition from lockdown to lockout was being actively considered, but warned further cases or surprise wastewater results could prolong the period spent in lockdown.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the single case number, combined with 10 of Wednesday’s 11 cases being in isolation for all of their infectious period, “shows us the hard lockdown is working”.
There were 3020 tests in the 24 hours to midnight Thursday.
An additional close contact site was added on Thursday: a Shell service station at the Stuart Hwy in Katherine.
The outlet was added after four people left the Binjari Indigenous community and travelled to Katherine on Tuesday night.
One of the four tested positive on Wednesday morning.
Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said officers were yet to decide whether to hand the four infringements worth $5024 each over the incident.
“That work is still being undertaken,” Mr Chalker said.
“We’ve gone through the close contact tracing interviews with them.
“The primacy was focusing on getting them into the Centre for National Resilience, which has occurred.
“We’ll get to the noncompliance in a reasonable period of time.”
UPDATE: ONE new case of Covid-19 has been recorded overnight and community Rockhole will transition into a normal lockdown.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the new case was a teenager from Binjari who was in isolation at the Centre for National Resilience. It is unlikely he was infectious in the community.
Wastewater testing and virus testing from Rockhole has both returned negative, prompting the community to transition into a normal lockdown from Thursday 1pm.
Residents will be able to leave their homes for one of five essential reasons.
Wastewater results from the Bicentennial Rd catchment returned a weak positive. There was a positive in the Martin Pl sub-catchment and a negative result was returned in Berrimah.
EARLIER: CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner is expected to provide a Covid-19 update at 11.05am Thursday.
It comes a day after the Territory recorded its biggest daily increase in local infections since the pandemic began.
There were 11 new cases detected in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, including a woman who was alleged to have left the Indigenous community of Binjari to spend time in Katherine.
She was discovered to have left her home after contact tracers went to inform her she had tested positive for Covid-19.
Ten of Wednesday’s new cases tested positive while in isolation.
The new infections on Wednesday took the total number of cases associated with the Darwin-Katherine-Robinson River cluster to 51.
There were four people in the Royal Darwin Hospital being treated for symptoms of Covid-19 on Wednesday.
The rest of the cases were being treated at the Howard Springs quarantine facility.
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