Greater Hobart hotspot revoked for NT arrivals

Those travelling to the NT from Tasmania can rejoice — the hotspot has been revoked. LATEST HERE.

UPDATE TUESDAY 4PM: The Chief Health Officer has revoked Southern Tasmania as a hotspot for the purposes of travel to the Northern Territory, effective immediately.

Revoking the hotspot aligns with the end of the lockdown in Southern Tasmania.

Public health controls remain in place across Southern Tasmania including mandatory wearing of face masks outside the home.

This includes the Tasmanian local government areas of Brighton Council, Central Highlands Council, Clarence City Council, Derwent Valley Council, Glamorgan-Spring Bay Council, Glenorchy City Council, Hobart City Council, Huon Valley Council, Kingborough Council, Sorell Council, Southern Midlands Council and Tasman Council.

People arriving in the NT from Southern Tasmania will no longer have to undertake mandatory supervised quarantine in the NT and anyone currently in mandatory supervised quarantine from this area will be able to exit.

UPDATED FRIDAY 3PM: THE Northern Territory will declare Greater Hobart a hotspot on Friday afternoon.

It comes after 12 local government areas, including Tasmanian capital, were plunged into a snap three-day lockdown.

The Northern Territory’s declaration will mirror those zones, according to Chief Minister Michael Gunner’s office.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein said the decision to lockdown parts of his state from 6pm AEDT was because a man positive for the Delta strain of Covid-19 was being uncooperative with contact tracers. The man is alleged to have escaped hotel quarantine.

The NT News understands the Northern Territory will declare Greater Horbart as a hotspot at the same time lockdown comes into effect, at 5pm NT time.

Anyone who travels from Tasmania to the NT will need to spend a fortnight in supervised quarantine at either Howard Springs or Alice Springs’ facilities.

The Tasmanian capital joins New South Wales and Victoria as hotspots.

EARLIER: THE number of Territorians looking to book their Covid-19 vaccination tripled in the 24 hours after Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced certain workers had just one month.

Data released by the NT government’s Covid-19 Vaccination Team shows in the 24 hours after Mr Gunner’s speech at 11am on Wednesday, 2243 bookings were made either online or through a booking officer.

That is just over three times as many as the 24 hours prior to Mr Gunner’s announcement, when just 742 bookings were made.

In the 24 hours to 11am Thursday, 1358 online bookings were made through the NT government website.

Another 885 bookings were made either via phone calls or by people walking into vaccine clinics.

Mr Gunner on Wednesday announced some of the world’s toughest vaccination mandate laws.

Under the chief health officer’s directions, workers must be vaccinated if they are likely to come into contact with vulnerable people, are likely to contract Covid-19 in their workplace or work in essential infrastructure or logistics industries.

According to Dr Hugh Heggie’s direction, vulnerable people include anyone under the age of 12, a person who for medical reasons cannot be vaccinated, an Aboriginal person or a person with a pre-existing condition which renders them at risk of severe illness from Covid-19.

Workers who do not receive their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by November 13 will have to be redeployed to a role which does not put them into contact with vulnerable people.

Employees who breach the directions will receive a $5000 fine.