The Northern Territory has recorded another six COVID cases in quarantine, adding to the 10 recorded from two flights out of India in the past four days.

April 20, 2021

The Northern Territory has recorded another six COVID-19 cases in quarantine, adding to the 10 already recorded in the past four days.

A woman aged 71, who arrived on the repatriation flight from Chennai on Thursday tested positive for the virus, NT Health said on Tuesday.

Two men, aged 33 and 42, three women, 33 and 34, and a girl aged four have also tested positive after arriving in Darwin from New Delhi on Saturday.

All are under the care of the AUSMAT team at the Howard Springs quarantine facility, except the 71-year-old woman, who is at Royal Darwin Hospital for medical treatment unrelated to coronavirus.

It follows four new cases, which were recorded on Monday. All were passengers on the repatriation flights that arrived from Chennai on Thursday and New Delhi on Saturday.

A further six passengers on the Chennai flight were diagnosed with the virus on Saturday.

“The NT government is following stringent quarantine guidelines to protect quarantine workers, repatriated people and Territorians,” Health Minister Natasha Fyles said.

“We operate in a state of preparedness for cases to arrive via repatriation flights and our quarantine facilities are well equipped to manage these”.

All the earlier cases are being cared for at the Howard Springs facility, a former mining camp renamed the Centre for National Resilience.

Repatriation flights started arriving in the NT on October 23. Since then 6668 international travellers have quarantined at the facility.

The total number of positive cases diagnosed in the NT is 130, with 89 reported from international repatriation.

All have been related to international or interstate travel, with no cases of community transmission.