Health Minister Natasha Fyles announces four cases, new mask mandate areas

More communities have returned detections of Covid in their wastewater and will go under mask mandate settings as four new cases of Covid were recorded overnight.

SUNDAY UPDATE: Bulla, Daguragu, Kalkarindji, Pigeon Hole, Lajamanu and Tennant Creek and surrounding homelands will all be under a mask mandate as of 2pm today, the Health Minister Natasha Fyles announced.

All areas have returned positive detections of Covid in their wastewater and will be under the restrictions for the next 72 hours.

They join Barunga and Beswick under the new restrictions.

It comes as the Territory recorded four new cases overnight, including a returned traveller from London.

The three other cases were connected to the Katherine East cluster and include a four-year-old girl who was quarantining in Howard Springs and a 15 year-old and 17 year-old who will now move to the Centre for National Resilience.

Ms Fyles said these results were not unexpected.

“We strongly suspect that we’ll have more positive cases in the coming days,” she said.

“In fact, we’re surprised that we haven’t seen more cases today but that’s a good sign.”

Health teams were deployed to Beswick yesterday to undertake testing in the region after they were sent into lockout settings.

Ms Fyles said she wasnted to thank the Sunrise health team who were working with NT health on stopping the spread in the community.

“They’ve been going door-to-door or getting people to head down to the basketball court to get those all important tests and vaccinations,” she said.

Tennant Creek’s reading was considered weak, but was of high concern as just 69 per cent of residents were fully vaxxed.

After yesterday’s wastewaster detection in Alice Springs, there was a weaker result, turning that detection to a presumptive positive. The area will remain in their current settings as Ms Fyles said they were happy with the vaccination rate.

EARLIER: HEALTH Minister Natasha Fyles will front the media today to announce an update of the Covid situation in the Territory.

Just one new case was recorded yesterday. A man from the Katherine cluster in his 20s tested positive following a testing blitz.

Ms Fyles will also provide an update to the concern around the remote communities of Beswick and Barunga which yesterday were subject to a lockout and mask mandate respectively.

SATURDAY: REMOTE community Beswick will enter a lockout and mask mandate will be implemented at Barunga, both for 72-hour following positive wastewater results.

Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the positive results had prompted the actions.

A mask mandate was allocated for Barunga due to its 91 per cent vaccination rate, while the lockout was deemed appropriate for Beswick due to its 64 per cent vaccination rate.

Both measures will become active from 2pm Saturday.

A rapid response team will be sent to Beswick.

Ms Fyles said there were further positive wastewater results across the Katherine region: Martin Tce, the Stuart Hwy and Bicentennial Rd catchments. There were also positive results in Binjari, Rockhole and Warlpiri Camp.

“This is not unexpected in the sense that people are now moving back into those communities that have previously tested positive for Covid-19,” she said.

“They’re past their infectious period and they’ve left to see now and have headed back to those communities.”

Residents in the areas are urged to monitor for symptoms and get vaccinated.

Ms Fyles said positive results had also been returned in Alice Springs at the Gillen Rd and Northside catchments.

“At this stage, we can’t explain it. What I can say is that we do have around 375 people in Alice Springs undertaking home quarantine so it could be someone that has the virus and the testing regime hasn’t picked that up yet,” she said.

“We in Alice Springs are not putting in place any mandates or any public health orders directions, but we’re watching Alice Springs very closely.”

One case of Covid-19 was also recorded overnight, a man in his 20s who was found positive as part of the testing blitz in Katherine East.

EARLIER: HEALTH Minister Natasha Fyles has scheduled a surprise Covid press conference for 1pm Saturday.

On Friday, the Katherine Covid cluster reached 67 cases in total after three new cases were linked to the outbreak.

The cases were linked to a testing blitz across four streets in Katherine East, with concern there may be further cases in the community.

Government updates on Covid outbreaks are typically scheduled for 11am or slightly after, so the decision to hold a press conference later in the day, after no indication there would be an update, is unusual.

It comes after Ms Fyles on Friday copped questioning over the decision to bar arrivals from a number of popular tourist destinations for their 14 days in the NT.

More to come.

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Originally published as Health Minister Natasha Fyles announces four cases, new mask mandate areas