Howard Springs quarantine facility to raise the safety bar even higher following India flight: Director
The director of medical services at the Howard Springs quarantine facility says changes are being made at the site to set the bar for health and safety standards even higher.
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THE bar will be set even higher when it comes to health and safety at the Howard Springs quarantine facility, says Di Stephens, the director of medical services from the Centre of National Resilience.
With 78 passengers from Saturday’s Qantas humanitarian flight out of India now settled into Howard Springs, Professor Stephens said the intention was to lift the quarantine facility from gold standard to platinum.
Before the plane left India, 72 people from the original cohort of 150 were unable to board with 48 testing positive to COVID-19 and 24 being identified as close contacts.
“In putting the infection control plan for this next phase, we have used the very best of the gold standard that we have set,” Professor Stephens said.
“We have said that our gold standard can be improved … we can get to the platinum standard, so we will continue to improve on those processes.
“We have BASSINTHEGRASS happening this weekend, which is a testament to the way that we have all worked together on the COVID-19 response to keep the Northern Territory safe.
“We will continue along that pathway. As we all know, health care services knowledge is always evolving. So there will be an evolving process.
“We will continue to look at the ways in which we are doing things and make changes.
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“That is definitely what we will do going forward. Already we have put in place some controls through the federal government at the receiving end of the repatriation flights. This is what we call the upstream controls.
“Passengers getting onto repatriation flights out of India are being isolated in a hotel with bubble staff, who have not been exposed to the community at all.
“This increased testing regime has shown it works.
“It is a demonstration of why we put the pause in place. We put the pause in place so that we could get some more upstream controls in place in a country that is suffering an absolutely tragic third wave of COVID-19, where it is almost impossible for people in the community not to pick it up.
“We have done that, we’ve made it safer.”
The Howard Springs facility can handle about 100 positive cases, but AUSMAT and NT Health teams hope to keep that number at 50.
“We will be absolutely vigilant while this facility is open about our infection control and about keeping the residents safe, keeping our workers safe and keeping the Northern Territory safe,” Professor Stephens said.
Saturday’s repatriation flight was the first since the federal government was forced to put a halt to repatriation from India after a significant spike in passengers returning with COVID put stress on the health system.
Qantas 112 touched down in Darwin at 8.50am and taxied to the RAAF Base Darwin arrival hall.
When passengers disembarked, they were transferred to buses that took them under police escort to the Howards Springs quarantine facility.
On arrival they were health checked and taken to the site’s former gym where they were processed and assigned rooms.
The arrivals will now be subjected to regular testing for COVID-19 over the next 14 days while in quarantine.
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said Howard Springs is gearing to take in 2000 returning Australians a fortnight by the end of June, which includes Aussies stranded in Europe.
This month 450 are expected from India, and close to 600 will fly in from London and Istanbul.
Of the 9000 stranded in India, the most vulnerable are being flown out first from the COVID-ravaged subcontinent.
Northern Territory Health Minister Natasha Fyles has said while she was confident the Territory’s systems could cope, the flights must not create a burden on the health system.
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