The Northern Territory health minister says the Top End is open to quarantining Australians travellers if a cap on international arrivals is lifted.

September 14, 2020

The Northern Territory says it’s open to quarantining some of the more than 25,000 Australians stuck overseas if a cap on international arrivals is lifted.

States are under pressure to boost the capacity of their COVID-19 hotel quarantine schemes to allow more people to return home.

Health Minister Natasha Fyles says the NT government has been talking with the federal government about using the Howard Springs facility for the job.

“It is really difficult for Australians caught up overseas,” she told reporters on Monday.

“We’ve all heard the stories of people that have inadvertently been caught up and are now stuck in countries where there are no flights or if there are they are hugely expensive”.

Ms Fyles said the former workers camp at Howard Springs, near Darwin, was “well set up” and could handle up to 3000 people.

“There is certainly room, it’s huge,” she said.

“But there would be a lot of work to be undertaken if we were to see international flights arriving into the Northern Territory

“It’s the health and safety of Territorians that comes first, but NT is certainly open to that.”

Ms Fyles said the facility had already housed people who were evacuated from Wuhan in China and the Diamond Princess cruise ship at the start of the pandemic.

It comes as the NT clocks up 28 days or two virus replication cycles since its last COVID-19 case after a family who returned from Melbourne was declared virus-free.

“Although we have reached this clinical definition of eradication we were and still are aiming for a suppression strategy,” she said.

“We must not become complacent. I believe we will see (more) coronavirus in the Northern Territory.”