More than 1000 people in NT told to self-isolate due to Melbourne cluster, as city goes into snap lockdown

More than a thousand people in the NT have been ordered to self-isolate and get tested for coronavirus after authorities made the unique decision to declare Melbourne Airport and greater Melbourne a hot spot.

MORE than a thousand people in the Northern Territory have been ordered to self-isolate and get tested for coronavirus after authorities made the unique decision to declare Melbourne Airport and greater Melbourne a hot spot.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner said there was a “slim possibility” that a person who had come into contact with a positive COVID-19 case in Melbourne had travelled into the Territory.

Under the chief health officer’s direction anyone who has arrived from greater Melbourne since February 7 must self-isolate and get tested.

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Cleaners are seen wearing full PPE while working at the disinfection of the Holiday Inn hotel on February 10, 2021 in Melbourne, (Photo by Diego Fedele/Getty Images)

Mr Gunner said nine flights had landed in the Territory since February 7 and there were 1023 people who need to self-isolate and get tested.

The Northern Territory at 10.45am ACST on Friday declared anyone arriving in the jurisdiction from greater Melbourne or had come via Tullamarine airport will be taken to the Howard Springs quarantine facility.

A flight from Melbourne landed at 11am.

A total of 46 people of 59 passengers on that flight have been taken into quarantine. It’s understood the rest opted to get on the first plane back.

Mr Gunner said he expected the latest border restrictions with Melbourne to last at least five days, in line with Victoria’s snap five day lockdown.

“We are casting the net wide. We have to given just how infectious, how dangerous that new strain is,” he said.

It comes after Melbourne Airport confirmed one of its workers in busy terminal four cafe Brunetti had tested positive for COVID-19.

The Victorian health department has called for anyone who visited the airport cafe on Tuesday February 9 between 4.45am and 1.15pm to isolate, test and remain isolated for 14 days.

There are now 13 cases linked to the Holiday Inn medi-hotel cluster, which experts believe could be linked to the use of a nebuliser by a resident.

Victoria will be locked down from 11.59pm on Friday night, with stage four restrictions reintroduced until 11.59pm Wednesday.

Face coverings will be mandatory outdoors and indoors whenever you leave home.

Stay-at-home orders will be reintroduced, with only four legal reasons to leave the house.

Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel are seen arriving at the Pullman Hotel, where residents of the Holiday Inn medi-hotel were moved to, on February 11, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Luis Ascui/Getty Images)

A 5km limit on travel will also be enforced.

Schools and universities will close, and both private and public gatherings banned.

The Victorian chief health officer said genomic testing of the Holiday Inn cluster revealed it was of the highly infectious UK variant.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the lockdown was needed to prevent a third wave.

“Because this is so infectious and is moving so fast, we need a circuit breaker,” he said.

“I don’t want to sit here in a week, having ducked the difficult decision today, only to have to report that the only thing that will work is not a 5-day shutdown but something that has to last much, much longer.