NT mine workforce in isolation, authorities scrambling to reach up to 900 more contacts after worker tests positive to Covid-19
UPDATE: A NT mine’s 750-strong workforce is in isolation and Territory health authorities are scrambling to contact about 900 more FIFO workers across Australia after a worker at the site tested positive to Covid-19.
Northern Territory
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UPDATE: A NT mine’s 750-strong workforce is in isolation and Territory health authorities are scrambling to contact about 900 more FIFO workers across Australia after a worker at the site tested positive to coronavirus.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced at a press conference just after midday a man employed at the Newmont-owned Granites Gold Mine in Central Australia has tested positive to an as yet unknown strain of Covid-19, but which is likely the highly infectious Delta strain.
Mr Gunner said the mine worker had travelled to the NT from Bendigo in regional Victoria via Brisbane, where he had spent a night in hotel quarantine based on Queensland health directions, on Friday, June 18.
“On the 24th of June, he received a text message from NSW Health advising the hotel in Brisbane was a potential exposure site and he immediately isolated and got tested,” he said.
“He received the message from NSW as his driver’s license is currently from that state.
“As soon as his test came back positive, around midnight, approximately 12 hours ago, the Director of the Centre for Disease Control was notified, and our emergency procedures kicked in.
“Everyone on the mine site has gone into isolation, and the mine has started shut down processes and contact tracing has commenced.”
Mr Gunner said NT authorities believed the man, who is asymptomatic, had contracted Covid-19 while in hotel quarantine in Brisbane and had been infectious from June 18 to June 24.
The man along with 70 close contacts have been sent to the Howard Springs quarantine facility to undergo supervised quarantine, while all 754 workers currently at the Granites Gold Mine have been ordered into isolation at the mine.
Contact tracing has also begun for the about 900 people who are known to have left the mine since June 18 and travelled to other locations including Darwin, Alice Springs, Perth and Brisbane, with all affected being directed to isolate and get tested immediately.
The man’s case is not considered a case of community transmission.
Mt Gunner said at this stage NT authorities were focused on containment measures at the minesite, contact tracing and collecting more data.
No Covid-19 restrictions have been announced for the general public, though both Mr Gunner and Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie urged all Territorians to continue to follow standard Covid-19 health measures such as social distancing and ensure they use the Territory Check-In app.
EARLIER: A worker at a mine in Central Australia has tested positive to coronavirus.
The NT government has this morning confirmed that a worker at the Granites Gold Mine in Central Australia, located in the Tanami Desert about 540km northwest of Alice Springs, has tested positive to COVID-19.
It’s understood the worker contracted the disease in Brisbane.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie are expected to hold a press conference about the case early this afternoon.
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