Health Minister announces two new Covid cases from overnight

Two new Covid-19 cases were recorded overnight, one in quarantine and another in community.

TWO cases of Covid-19 were recorded overnight, a 17-year-old and 19-year-old.

Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the 17-year-old girl was a household contact from previous cases. She is in the Centre of National Resilience and has remained there for her infectious period.

The second case is a 19-year-old woman from Binjari, who tested positive following the third round of testing for the community.

She and her household contacts will be brought to the Centre for National Resilience.

There were 1800 tests on Sunday across the Northern Territory, including 153 in the Binjari community.

“Binjari is under those lockdown conditions so that case is not a threat to the NT community,” Health Minister Natasha Fyles said. There will be further testing in the Binjari community on Tuesday.

There was also a presumptive positive result in Katherine’s wastewater. with health authorities reminding anyone in Katherine to get tested if they had even mild symptoms

Commander Matt Hollamby said the police presence in Katherine remained “fluid and responsive”.

“Police along with Defence maintain vehicle control points and a hard lockdown at Binjari in accordance with CHO directions to assist with protecting Katherine and Binjari from community transmission of Covid-19,” he said.

The latest community to be locked down, Lajamanu, is yet to record any cases.

So far there have been 147 tests and around 20 doses of the vaccine delivered.

“Things are looking quite positive for Lajamanu, but it certainly is early days,” Minister Fyles said.

More wastewater testing will be done in a number of remote communities.

Health authorities said it was encouraging to see a number of people in these communities coming out to get vaccinated. “I know that there are queues forming but don’t worry you will be able to get vaccinated if you wish to get vaccinated,” Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Charles Pain said.

The vaccine bus was sent out from Alice Springs to Yuendumu for those wishing to be vaccinated. Meanwhile Robinson River headed into day 12 of testing, with the Health Minister confirming things were looking good for residents of that area.

OMICRON DETECTED IN NT

Ms Fyles also confirmed genomic testing showed a repatriated Australian, who travelled to Darwin from South Africa, has the Omicron strain of Covid-19.

The man arrived on November 25 from Johannesburg.

She said there was no risk to the community, with the man travelling straight into the Centre for National Resilience upon his arrival.

“The quarantine facility itself is broken into different zones so our international repatriations do not interact with any of our local community members,” she said.

As the nation’s experts rush to find out how serious the new variant is, Deputy Chief Health Officer Charles Pain said it’s “business as usual” for the NT.

“I’m not overly concerned as we’ve dealt with variants all the way through this,” Dr Pain

He said it was a positive that the case was quarantining at the “highly functioning” Howard Springs facility.

But more was needed to be known about the new variant.

“We don’t know whether it’s more infectious at this point,” Dr Pain said.

“We think it may be because of the mutations but we don’t actually have that evidence here.

“So there may well be other cases on that plane but we haven’t had much transmission on flights — it’ll be an interesting outcome if there are some further cases on there because of the higher infectious activity of this virus but we just don’t know that yet.”

The case was the third official one recorded in Australia, after two positive results were found in Sydney on Sunday.

A further two cases were reported Monday afternoon after having arrived in Sydney from South Africa on Sunday, bringing the total detected in Australia to five. Initial reports out of South Africa have indicated the symptoms of the new strain are quite mild.

Both Victoria and NSW has tightened their international border restrictions in light of the new strain, with quarantine requirements reintroduced.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the ATAGAI were reviewing the timeline for booster shots of the vaccines, as experts waited to see whether or not current vaccines worked against Omicron.

“We will not hesitate to take additional steps if the medical evidence is that more are required,” he said. Scientists at the Kirby Institute were testing the effectiveness of the vaccine against Omicron and said new vaccines could be in production within six to eight weeks if necessary.

Mr Hunt confirmed a National Cabinet meeting would be held in response to the new strain as more information became available.