NT quarantine staffing resources too stretched for humanitarian effort, for now, but Howard Springs facility a good fit

USING the NT’s premier quarantine facility to house Australians escaping other countries during the coronavirus pandemic would be the ‘right thing to do’ but the logistics of a stretched health workforce would make that difficult at the moment, Deputy Chief Health Officer Di Stephens has said.

USING the Northern Territory’s premier quarantine facility to house Australians escaping other countries during the pandemic would be the “right thing to do” but the logistics of a stretched health workforce would make that difficult at the moment, Deputy Chief Health Officer Di Stephens has said.

Professor Di Stephens, who heads up the NT’s quarantine health facilities, said the jurisdiction doesn’t have the staffing resources right now to increase the capacity of the Howard Springs Quarantine facility much more.

Late this week an estimated 1400 rooms out of the 3500 built at the disused miners camp had been stood up, with more than a thousand filled at the time.

NT Health workers processing people at the Howard Springs quarantine facility. Picture: Suppled/ NT Health

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The 60 hectare Howard Springs Quarantine Facility was originally built as a village to house 3,500 workers employed in the construction of Inpex’s $55 billion gas plant on Darwin Harbour.

The facility, which has become a standout in Australia’s coronavirus response, has been used to house Australians evacuated from Wuhan and infected cruise ship the Diamond Princess at the start of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has already flagged using Howard Springs for evacuation charters again if it becomes necessary, though in a press conference on Friday that the government did not have plans “at present” to send government-organised flights to gather the 24,000 Australians wanting to come home from overseas.

And with “finite” staffing resources available for the facility, and authorities and contractors already struggling to hire people faster than it is expanding, Prof Stephens said the use of Howard Springs as a humanitarian facility may have to wait until Victoria’s COVID-19 situation is under control.

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“There’s a whole lot of ways in which it might happen, but if Victoria does truly get complete control and comes off the hot spot list in the next month or two, then we will create capacity to be able to do that kind of humanitarian work as well,” she said.