NT revokes Covid hotspot declaration for Cairns as Far North Qld lockdown lifted

Northern Territory chief health officer Hugh Heggie has revoked the hotspot declaration for the tropical Far North Queensland city of Cairns.

UPDATED: THE Northern Territory will revoke its hotspot declaration for Cairns and Yarrabah from 3.30pm Wednesday.

The decision came after Queensland Premier Annastaszczuk decided to lift its lockdown over those two Far North Queensland local government areas.

The region went into lockdown on Sunday afternoon after a new case was linked to an infected Cairns taxi driver.

More to come.

EARLIER: NORTHERN Territory’s chief health officer Hugh Heggie has issued a Covid-19 hotspot declaration for the Queensland localities of Cairns and Yarrabah effective from 12pm Sunday.

Anyone arriving from Cairns or Yarrabah after that time will be directed into 14 days of supervised quarantine at the Howard Springs quarantine facility.

People who have visited those areas in the last 10 days must immediately isolate until they return a negative test result.

NT hotspot declarations for southeast Queensland will remain in place, as residents emerge from lockdown this afternoon as scheduled.

It comes as Cairns prepares to be plunged into a snap three-day lockdown from Sunday afternoon after a new case was linked to a Cairns taxi driver.

Queensland recorded nine new locally-acquired cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, of which seven were linked to the original cluster.

There are two flights from Cairns scheduled to arrive in Darwin after 2pm.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced that the Territory will ban all non-approved travel to NT from Covid-19 hotspots, effective from 12.01am Monday,

Mr Gunner said the Howard Springs quarantine facility had become a “victim of its own success”, with many Australians using the facility with no intention of staying on in the Territory.

As the number of people using the quarantine facility is expected to rise to nearly 3000 by the end of the week, Mr Gunner said it was no longer tenable to allow all domestic travellers who want to quarantine in the Territory to do so.

Anyone wanting to enter the Territory who is in a Covid-19 hotspot will need to apply at www.coronavirus.nt.gov.au/.

He warned that anyone entering the Territory without exemption will be breaching the chief health officer’s orders and will be fined accordingly.

Exemptions will apply, including for returning Territorians with a residence in the NT.

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