Strict public health measures prevented a COVID-19 outbreak in the NT, according to a new report

THE Territory’s strict public health measures in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have, to date, prevented an outbreak of the virus, says a Top End infectious diseases doctor.

THE Territory’s strict public health measures in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have, to date, prevented an outbreak of the virus, says a Top End infectious diseases doctor.

Dr Nicholas Douglas, an infectious diseases physician at Royal Darwin Hospital and researcher at the Menzies School of Health Research, published a paper in the Medical Journal of Australia today stating the public health measures undertaken in the Territory when COVID-19 hit Australia’s shores was instrumental in stopping an outbreak and preventing any deaths, despite the hospital system often operating beyond capacity.

“The NT consequently adopted particularly strict public health measures to avert the potentially catastrophic consequences of community transmission … including supervised isolation until viral clearance of all people with confirmed infections,” Dr Douglas, the lead author, wrote in the paper.

NT health professionals across the Territory received NT Critical Care Rapid Response training earlier this year. The strict health measures put in place in the NT have proven to be successful in preventing a COVID-19 outbreak, according to an infectious diseases doctor. Picture: Che Chorley

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He said the strict isolation had proven successful in the NT, despite some patients struggling with compulsory isolation.

“The priority of the strict NT isolation requirements for patients with COVID-19 was viral containment at a time when data on the duration of viral transmissibility were sparse,” he wrote.

“More recent evidence suggests that viable SARS-CoV-2 is rarely isolated more than 10 days from symptom onset, and requirements have consequently been eased, while maintaining supervised isolation with health management during the period of greatest infectivity.”

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The report also revealed two patients being treated at RDH for COVID-19 required supplemental oxygen and one also required intubation.