Greater Darwin's 48-hour lockdown was implemented on Sunday and then extended to Friday 1pm, and while Katherine is outside this zone, Northern Territory chief health officer Dr Hugh Heggie has encouraged people outside of Darwin to stay at home and rethink any big social gatherings

"COVID-19 has made its way to the NT and it is vital that we get on top of this cluster early," he said.

"The actions we take in the coming days will be paramount to stop the spread of COVID-19.

"The situation in the Northern Territory is continuing to evolve, while our health teams work to undertake a large-scale contact tracing mission."

Indigenous health services, including Wurli-Wurlinjang Health Service, Katherine West Health Board and Sunrise Health Service, have been administering COVID-19 vaccines to people within Katherine and surrounding regions, including in remote communities.

Wurli-Wurlinjang's COVID project officer Antony King said there had been "lots of interest" from the community to get vaccinated.

"We were initially giving the vaccine to people 50 and over as we only had the AstraZeneca vaccine, but we recently got on board with Pfizer and can vaccinate people aged 16-59, so the interest has been quite good," he said.

"I normally vaccinate four days a week and would do 12-18 a day."

Mr King said the Darwin lockdown, coupled with people coming in for their second dose, meant he was administering vaccines throughout the week, with plenty of other enquiries.

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He said the situation in Darwin and the nature of the virus showed that things could change overnight.

"We need to be on the front foot - getting a vaccine is great, but this shows that even with the rollout happening there is the potential that things can change," Mr King said.

"It is important to get vaccinated, we need to keep the community safe."

Katherine West chief executive officer Sinon Cooney said the board had been challenge by supply and clarity on eligibility for different vaccine, however he said the rollout had been "pretty good".

He said they had administered about 200 AstraZeneca vaccines and about 100 Pfizer.

"There has been a good uptake of the Pfizer vaccine received so far, and AstraZeneca has been tougher with the changing landscape on who can have it," Mr Cooney said.

"The lockdown has seen an increase in demand, although we are limited by supply and resources - health resources are stretched in the availability of people working in remote areas."

Mr Cooney said given the Granites Gold Mine was only a few hundred kilometres from Lajamanu, one of the communities the board services, it heightened the sense of awareness about the importance of the vaccine.

He said the safest place for people to be right now was at home.

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