The Northern Territory has declared three Melbourne suburbs COVID-19 hotspots after a second quarantine worker was diagnosed with the virus.

February 8, 2020

The Northern Territory has declared three Melbourne suburbs COVID-19 hotspots after a second hotel quarantine worker contracted the virus in less than a week.

The woman tested positive after her shift on Sunday and has since been working with contact tracers who have identified three potential exposure sites in the city’s northwest.

The suburbs added to the list on Monday are Maidstone, Sunshine and Taylors Lakes.

More than 100 people, including 12 Australian Defence Force members and nine police officers, have been identified as close contacts of the woman they worked with at the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport.

Another 17 people have been deemed social and household close contacts.

NT Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie says Monday’s community virus case, which has been linked to hotel quarantine, prompted his decision.

People who arrive in the NT from the new hotspots will be required to go into supervised quarantine, or they can return to Melbourne.

Anyone in the NT who has been in one of the hotspots since February 5 will have to isolate until they receive a negative test result.

Dr Heggie has previously said declaring individual suburbs hotspots is a targeted approach by NT Health based on the infected person’s movement and places of potential exposure.

Meanwhile, 10 Melbourne suburbs, which were listed as hotspots on Thursday have been removed from the list, including Melbourne, West Melbourne, Brighton, Clayton South, Heatherton, Keysborough, Moorabbin, Noble Park, Springvale and Wheelers Hill.