Chief Minister Michael Gunner reveals the Territory’s Covid path forward when NT hits 80 per cent vaccinated

Chief Minister Michael Gunner has revealed a raft of major changes for the Territory’s path forward and future when the NT hits the 80 per cent vaccination rate — which he wants to happen in 50 days’ time.

UPDATE: The Territory’s border plans look to change once the 80 per cent vaccination rate is hit.

Mr Gunner expects that to occur by early November.

The Territory’s Plan for Covid-safe Freedoms will mean five things:

1) Keeping tough border protection measures in place for unvaccinated people trying to come to the Territory.

2) More freedoms for vaccinated Territorians and visitors.

3) The strongest vaccination rules in Australia – making vaccines compulsory for workers in high-risk settings.

4) Doing whatever it takes to protect vulnerable remote communities from the virus.

5) An extra layer of protection for Territorians who can’t yet be vaccinated – like kids under 12.

Once these vaccination targets have been met, the Territory Government will be able to make changes to how we manage the Territory’s borders and how we respond to anyfuture outbreaks in the NT.

BORDER CHANGES

Mr Gunner has outlined border changes that will see a transition from the current hot spots policy to three types of travel categories – with different rules depending on whether the traveller is vaccinated or unvaccinated.

The categories are:

GREEN: If you arrive in the Territory from any place that is not a designated Covid hotspot.

All arrivals from green zones – both vaccinated and unvaccinated – will be permitted free access to the Territory. This the same rule that we have now for any area that is not a hotspot.

ORANGE: You will be an orange zone traveller if you arrive from an area that has low-level Covid risk.

Vaccinated travellers arriving from an orange zone will be required to self-quarantine – at home or in another suitable location – and they can then leave their quarantine once they have received a negative test result.

For vaccinated travellers, this is the same as the current ‘test-and-isolate’ directions we sometimes have for Covid exposure sites interstate.

RED: You will be a red zone traveller if you arrive from an area that has been designated as a Covid hot spot by the chief health officer.

Once we move to this next phase, hopefully in November – vaccinated people arriving from red zones will no longer have to quarantine in Howard Springs or the Alice Springs facility.

Instead – if you are fully vaccinated and arriving from a hot spot, you will be required to undertake 14 days of self-quarantine – at home or in another suitable location – for the full 14 days.

If you are an unvaccinated traveller from an orange or red zone – unless you have a pre- approved reason for travel, such as a returning resident, or essential work purposes, you will be banned from entering the Territory

MANAGING OUTBREAKS

At 80 per cent fully vaccinated, lockdowns might still occur.

The third phase of the National Plan allows for targeted, short and sharp lockdowns if it is the best course of action for health and economic outcomes.

However, in the future, a lockdown won’t be the only option we have.

Depending on the circumstances of an outbreak, instead of an automatic lockdown – we may instead go straight into what will be called a lockout.

Under a lockout, vaccinated people will not be locked down.

They can continue to work, go shopping, play sport, hit the town – provided they wear a mask while doing so.

There may be some internal travel restrictions – to ensure people from an outbreak area don’t cross into other areas. But for vaccinated people – life will continue almost as usual.

For those people who can get vaccinated but choose not to, you will be locked out of these freedoms – and only permitted to leave your home for the five reasons.

Because you will be most at risk of getting the virus when it’s in the community, most at risk of getting seriously sick, and most at risk of passing the infection on to others.

To help make this new policy work once we reach the next phase, the Territory Labor Government is working with other governments now to get this technology ready – as well as making sure vaccinated people without access to apps or QR codes can still have a Freedom Pass.

MANDATORY VACCINES FOR WORKERS IN HIGH-RISK ENVIRONMENTS

To boost vaccination rates and protect people who cannot get vaccinated, the Territory will phase in Australia’s strongest vaccination plan – making the vaccine mandatory for workers in high-risk environments.

There will be three tests to determine if you are worker who has to have a vaccination.

 1) If in the course of your work you directly interact with vulnerable person. This applies to anyone who works with or comes into contact with children (eg: teachers and child care workers). It will also include frontline health and emergency workers (like healthcare and police), anyone who has contact with vulnerable and transient populations – like those working in our community services sector, and anyone who works in a remote community. This will also include customer-facing roles – like supermarket, retail and hospitality workers.

2) If the risk of COVID can be brought into their work setting. This will include quarantine and border control workers – where we already have vaccination coverage, as well as places symptomatic people may visit – like GP clinics and pharmacies.

3) If you undertake work that relates to essential infrastructure, supply or logistics. A legal direction will be issued by the Chief Health Officer that makes it mandatory for people working in these environments to be vaccinated against COVID-19 – from a certain date, which will be determined at the time.

An unvaccinated employee will be prevented from working in certain environments unless they are vaccinated by a certain date. An employer will be prevented from allowing employees to work in certain environments unless that are vaccinated by that date. 

Over the coming weeks, the government will continue to work on the plan – including consulting with health, industry and community stakeholders – as our vaccination rates continue to climb. 

The key to the Territory’s success in the next phase of COVID-19 is vaccinations. That means every Territorian has a role to play to keep the Territory safe and free – get vaccinated.

REMOTE COMMUNITIES

The first challenge in remote communities is getting as many Territorians vaccinated as possible, as quickly as possible.

There is a lot of talk about a handful of communities with very low vax numbers at the moment.

But the overall roll out is progressing very well in remote Territory communities.

Our focus will now be on working with local leaders, land councils, and health services to lift the numbers everywhere.

Even when we have reached our 80-per-cent-PLUS vaccination target, there will still be extra measures in place to protect the vulnerable, including remote communities.

This will include making the vaccine compulsory for remote workers and we will work with Land Councils on this.

The best way to protect our remote communities and Aboriginal population is making sure they themselves are vaccinated.

If, when we are ready to take the next steps as part of the National holding back Plan, there are a handful of communities where the vaccination rate remains low, despite all the efforts of government, land councils and health services – that will not stop the Territory’s progress.

We cannot wait forever to move forward, because one or two communities are.

It there are some communities who don’t reach a high enough coverage of vaccination – we may need to look at other options to restrict movement in and out of those communities.

KIDS

Finally – our children under 12 don’t yet have the choice to get vaccinated.

In NSW, children have been among the many, many people ending up in the ICU.

We are doing more work on how we protect our kids.

Obviously our work on making the vaccine mandatory for high-risk environments is a massive part of that – and it will make the biggest difference.

But we are exploring other options too – such as ventilation solutions in schools.

Random testing for people who are in places frequented by young kids – like schools and sports competitions – is under consideration.

EARLIER: Chief Minister Michael Gunner will outline his plan for what lockdowns will look like when the Territory hits 80 per cent vaccinated at a press conference today.

It’s understood the press conference, which will be held at Parliament House at 11.30am, will domestic border controls and management of remote communities.

The Chief Minister will appear alongside the chief health officer and the Police Commissioner.

The NT News has been told there will be more detail given at the press conference than has been given in any other Australian jurisdiction.

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Originally published as Chief Minister Michael Gunner reveals the Territory’s Covid path forward when NT hits 80 per cent vaccinated