Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner is expected to reveal the results of COVID-19 testing in a remote Indigenous community.

November 17, 2021

Authorities are expected to reveal if the Northern Territory’s latest COVID-19 outbreak has spread through a remote Indigenous community.

The cluster grew to 11 cases on Tuesday after nine new infections were diagnosed in Katherine, about 320km south of Darwin.

But test results from the remote community of Robinson River, about 1000km from Darwin, weren’t immediately available.

They’re due on Wednesday with Chief Minister Michael Gunner expected to address media at 11.30am local time.

The latest outbreak in the Top End started on Monday when a 30-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man were reported as infected on Monday.

The woman is the sister of federal Senator Malarndirri McCarthy.

She is also unvaccinated and had travelled to Robinson River where she was diagnosed with the virus, the first case reported in a remote NT Aboriginal community.

Senator McCarthy on Wednesday said she had spoken to some of her cousins in Katherine and they were all double vaccinated.

“There was definitely no hesitancy (about getting the vaccine),” she told the ABC.

But more needed to be done to counter negative attitudes towards getting the jab, the senator added, pointing to messaging in First Nations languages.

No new cases have been found at Robinson River on Tuesday, with the results from the first round of testing not available until Wednesday due to the remoteness of the community.

Overcrowded housing and low vaccination rates trouble many Indigenous communities across the NT, with reports some homes in Robinson River have 20 occupants.

“It’s been a concern in all our remote communities,” Mr Gunner said.

“Delta has close to a 100 per cent infection rate … so it does concern us if it gets into any household, particularly an overcrowded household.

“It’s going to see a lot of people test positive.”

Tuesday’s cases include a 71-year-old man, five-year-old twin girls, and a 65-year-old woman who was admitted to Royal Darwin Hospital.

Four women – aged 62, 40, 38 and 22 – also tested positive, along with a 16-year-old girl.

All 11 cases are household contacts and live in Katherine.

The group is quarantining at the Centre for National Resilience, with the exception of the woman in hospital.

It is the largest number of cases diagnosed in the NT in a 24-hour period, with fears the outbreak could lead to many more Aboriginal people becoming infected.

Mr Gunner said it was likely the cluster was linked to the NT’s first community transmission outbreak, which was triggered several weeks ago by a woman who unlawfully travelled to the NT from Cairns after visiting Victoria.

Greater Katherine and Robinson River were plunged into a three-day lockdown on Monday evening.

That has been extended in Katherine until Monday, with a territory-wide order to wear face masks in most public areas.