Greater Melbourne hot spot revoked by NT as Victorian lockdown comes to an end
The greater Melbourne hot spot will be revoked by the NT chief health officer at 6pm on Wednesday, with the state of Victoria to end a five-day lockdown at 11.59pm AEDT on Wednesday night
Northern Territory
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The greater Melbourne hot spot will be revoked by the NT chief health officer at 6pm on Wednesday.
It comes as Victoria’s five-day lockdown comes at an end at 11.59pm AEDT on Wednesday night.
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It means people from these Local Government Areas will be able to travel to the Northern Territory without having to quarantine and people in Howard Springs from those areas will be released.
Those isolating in the NT from a Victorian hot spot awaiting a COVID-19 test result will also be able to leave quarantine unless they have been identified as a close contact of a positive case.
Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie said he would continue to monitor the situation in Victoria.
“Based on current expert advice on control of the Holiday Inn Cluster in Victoria, provided at the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, it is appropriate to revoke Victorian Local Government Areas as hot spots for the purpose of travel to the Northern Territory,” Dr Heggie said.
“The cases linked to the Holiday Inn Cluster have been contained and their contacts traced while significant community testing has been undertaken with no new cases. This gives me confidence in revoking the hot spots in line with Victoria coming out of its five day lockdown tonight.”
It comes after 35 suburbs, Melbourne Airport and the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport were made hot spots last Friday morning, following an outbreak of the highly infectious UK variant of COVID-19 at the Holiday Inn.
Melbourne airport, the first airport in Australia to be declared as a hot spot, was revoked as a hot spot on Tuesday morning.
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Close contacts of positive cases from any of the Victorian hot spots who are in the Northern Territory, are still required to complete their 14 day quarantine period.
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