A seven-day lockdown in the Northern Territory town of Katherine has been extended by 48 hours amid a COVID-19 outbreak among the Indigenous community.

November 23, 2021

A lockdown in the Northern Territory town has been extended amid a COVID-19 outbreak among the Indigenous community.

Residents in Katherine, 320km south of Darwin, will remain confined in their homes for a further two days until Wednesday at 6pm.

It comes as the outbreak grows to 37 cases after a 33-year-old woman and a 67-year-old man from the town were diagnosed with the virus on Monday.

It’s the second time the lockdown that started seven days ago has been extended with residents only permitted to leave their homes for the five essential reasons.

The outbreak started when an infected woman illegally entered the NT in late October.

The 21-year-old lied on her border entry form before travelling from Cairns to Darwin after visiting Victoria, where she had contracted the virus.

She infected a man in Darwin before the virus spread to Katherine, then the Aboriginal communities of Robinson River and Binjari.

Restrictions have eased in Robinson River, 1000km southeast of Darwin, where the lockdown is now a lockout of unvaccinated people.

However, Binjari, 330km south of Darwin, remains under an extreme lockdown order after nine new cases were detected there on Saturday.

The 190 residents, along with 100 people in neighbouring Rockhole, are only allowed to leave their homes in an emergency or for medical treatment.

Meanwhile, the NT has relaxed some of its border restrictions for fully vaccinated travellers from red zone areas where the virus is present.

Under sweeping changes to the territory’s border rules they’re now permitted to quarantine at home as long as they follow new testing guidelines and return negative results.

A ban on most unvaccinated arrivals has also taken effect, regardless of where they travel from.

The only exception will be essential personnel, those entering on compassionate grounds and Territorians returning from green zone jurisdictions where COVID is not present.

The home quarantine requirement is scheduled to end on December 20, with rapid antigen testing extended to all arrivals.