Knotts Crossing Resort seeks answers from health authorities over Covid case travel

The owners of the Katherine resort plan to fumigate the room of where a positive Covid-19 case guest stayed and ‘destroy’ his bed linen.

• Updated: Greater Darwin and Katherine sent into 3-day lockdown

THE owners of the Katherine resort which the positive Covid-19 case checked into are chasing answers from health authorities about why he was allowed to travel before his tests results came back.

Knotts Crossing owner Ian Pace said the arrival of the Covid-infected man had cost his 130-room hotel ‘tens of thousands’ of dollars.

He said the hotel was booked out at the time of the man’s arrival.

Mr Pace said his staff were still establishing the exact cost and was concerned the positive case could cause reputational damage to his business.

He reassured his current and future guests that all measures were being taken to ensure the hotel was thoroughly cleaned.

Knotts Crossing Resort.

Bed linen would be destroyed and the room the man stayed in would be fumigated.

Mr Pace said he understood the pandemic was an ever-changing situation for health authorities but questioned why the man was allowed to leave Darwin.

“Why was a person who has had a test allowed to leave and go out into the community,” he said.

“When was the results known and why didn’t anyone recall him.

“This has cost us a lot of money and in reputation. If you have a lot of ongoing customers they might not come back.”

Mr Pace said he would seek some financial compensation from the NT Government.

Katherine is now in a 72-hour lockdown along with Darwin, Palmerston and the Rural area.