Man from India repatriation flight tests positive to COVID-19 in Howard Springs

UPDATE: A 41-year-old male, who arrived on a repatriation flight from New Delhi, has tested positive for COVID-19.

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UPDATE: A 41-year-old male, who arrived on the repatriation flight from New Delhi at the weekend, has tested positive for COVID-19.

He is asymptomatic and is under the care of NT Health at the NT Centre for National Resilience.

Since repatriation flights to the Territory began on October 23, 2020, a total 6950 international arrivals have undertaken quarantine at the Howard Springs Centre for National Resilience.

123 positive COVID-19 cases have been reported from international repatriation.

The total number of cases diagnosed in the Northern Territory is 171.

All cases have been related to international or interstate travel, with no cases of community transmission

EARLIER: One of the passengers on a repatriation flight from India has tested positive to COVID-19, with other passengers undergoing further testing.

It comes after 78 Australians arrived in Darwin from New Delhi on Saturday morning, the first flight from India since they were paused by the Federal Government a fortnight ago.

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“I have news this morning that probably only one – they‘re still subject to further testing – but only one person has tested positive in that group,” NT Acting Chief Health Officer Charles Pain said this morning.

The flight was supposed to carry almost double that amount of passengers, but 72 were unable to board the plane because they either tested positive to the virus or were deemed a close contact.

Dr Pain said that some of those passengers who were knocked back after testing positive in India could have returned a false positive result.

“Those people who have tested positive will be retested. It’s expected that some of those people who were tested positive will return negative tests. That’s the way it works, I’m afraid,” he said.

Dr Pain said those people will rejoin the queue to go on future repatriation flights.

“They clearly will need to identify people who can stand in if this happens again.”

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