NT Covid alert overhaul as active cases reach over 3000
The Territory has given up on listing public exposure sites as one per cent of all residents battle a confirmed Covid infection.
Northern Territory
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UPDATE THURS: THE Territory has given up on listing public exposure sites as one per cent of all residents battle a confirmed Covid infection.
Secure NT has listed zero public exposure sites, despite 2705 active cases recorded in the Territory.
“We are no longer routinely listing exposure sites in the Northern Territory since transmission of Covid-19 is now widespread throughout the Territory,” the health website stated.
“You need to consider any movement through the Territory community as a risk for Covid-19 infection.
“So make sure to maintain social distancing, perform regular hand hygiene, monitor for symptoms, and get tested if you develop any symptoms.”
Secure NT said the exposure sites page would remain only to notify Territorians of superspreader events, major outbreak venues or areas of concern.
On Thursday Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the tracing system was replying on the automatic text alerts and positive cases to telling their close contacts of their infection.
“What we’re after right now is speed. The most important thing for us to do with Omicron wave is pace,” he said.
“So it’s all about pace, rather than rather than transferring responsibility.
“It’s about saying how can we get this message out quicker to people?
“We’re still doing contact tracing, we won’t walk away from that.”
Mr Gunner previously warned the public exposure list would close, saying the government predicted the skyrocketing number of exposure sites would make the site inoperable.
“At some stage the website will cease publishing exposure sites because as they grow in volume that loses effectiveness,” Mr Gunner previously said.
“There’s too much information for people to read.”
NT Health has been asked how many public exposure texts have been sent since the system began.
The text message will not include where the exposure site was, and will simply be an alert to monitor for symptoms or if they are required to get tested.
Other states have also transitioned to a text alert system, but despite higher case numbers they still list the point of exposure in the text alerts.
INITIAL: TERRITORIANS will soon be in the dark over new exposure sites with the growing cluster expected to overwhelm the Covid information system.
Supermarkets, gyms, health centres and New Year’s parties are among latest venues pinged as exposure sites since December 30.
In a week Covid-positive cases visited at least 49 businesses and venues, which have been picked up by the contact tracing team.
Yet many Territorians have questioned delays to the exposure site list, with more residents told about Covid sites via Facebook rather than official channels.
Secure NT said venues were only publicly listed if all contacts could not be identified.
Yet Chief Minister Michael Gunner has announced this site will soon close down.
On Friday, Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced that Secure NT would eventually stop publishing exposure sites, despite 769 active cases across the Territory.
“At some stage the website will cease publishing exposure sites because as they grow in volume that loses effectiveness,” Mr Gunner said.
“There’s too much information for people to read.
“We will transition to ordinary contact tracing and the main method will be alerting people by a text message.
“We are still doing where appropriate aggressive contact tracing.”
Mr Gunner said the published exposure site list would act as a “secondary” to the text alert systems and urged Territorians to check in at every location.
“It may be the only reason you know to get tested,” he said.
But the text message will not include where the exposure site was, and will simply be an alert to monitor for symptoms.
The Covid alert system has already had a bungle, with Health Minister Natasha Fyles admitting a batch of text messages sent to Territorians was an error.
On Boxing Day, Alice Springs residents reported receiving the messages from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) advising they had visited low-risk exposure sites.
Ms Fyles could not confirm on Friday how many people received the botched text
messages or whether the recipients had been contacted yet to inform them of the
blunder.
Ms Fyles said the bungle was an “innocent mistake”.
Secure NT said new exposure sites were only listed online if contacts at an exposure site could not be found and public notification and action was required.
What to do if you are at an exposure site
Close contacts must immediately call the Covid hotline on 1800 490 484 and identify themselves as a close contact.
Full vaccinated close contacts must quarantine for seven days from the exposure period, and get a PCR test immediately and on the sixth day of their quarantine period.
Close contacts are advised to work from home where possible and avoid high-risk settings for a week after their quarantine ends, and take another Covid test on day 12.
Unvaccinated close contacts must quarantine for 14 days, with PCR tests immediately, on day six and day 12.
Casual contacts must self-quarantine until they get a negative tests result, call the Covid hotline to identify as a contact, and monitor symptoms for 14 days.
Low risk contacts are advised to monitor for symptoms for 14 days, and self-quarantine and get tested if any symptom develop.
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