The Northern Territory's COVID-19 lockdown is likely to end as planned with no new cases linked to an infected US defence contractor who travelled from NSW to the Top End.
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Chief Minister Michael Gunner says the situation looks "sweet" and he's confident but not certain the lockdown in Greater Darwin and Katherine will end on Thursday.
"We are confident that we have caught this thing in time," he told reporters Wednesday.
"We are confident that we have trapped the risk, and we are confident that our tracing efforts have been a success."
About 150,000 people were plunged into a three-day lockdown at midday on Monday.
Mr Gunner said he was "fairly confident but not completely certain" it would end as planned at noon on Thursday.
"We are feeling good. It's looking pretty sweet," he said.
Restrictions, such as wearing face masks in public, are likely to apply for one week.
The infected man in his 30s arrived at Darwin Airport on a Qantas flight just before midnight on Thursday and travelled to the Hilton Hotel by taxi.
He returned a positive result on Sunday after mandatory testing at Royal Darwin Hospital.
Genomic testing is yet to confirm the man has the Delta variant but his NT test shows traces of the strain.
He had earlier returned a negative COVID-19 test on August 10 during his 14-day stay in a Sydney quarantine hotel.
Authorities don't know how or where the man caught COVID-19 but NT Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie says test results show he hadn't been infected long and it was "less likely" he caught the virus in NSW.
The man has cooperated with authorities but refused to say if he has been vaccinated.
Investigators continue to track the man's movements after he left the Sydney hotel and flew via Canberra to Darwin, where he spent three days.
He then drove 300 kilometres south to Katherine on Sunday for work before a test revealed he was infected.
Contact tracers identified 93 close and 504 casual contacts from 15 exposure sites.
Mr Gunner said all 80 of the close contacts who remain in the Territory had been contacted, isolated and tested with 65 returning negative results and 15 pending.
A dozen close contacts left the Territory and one is in isolation on a ship off the NT coast.
More than 500 casual contacts have also been told to isolate until they return a negative COVID-19 result.
A Defence spokesman said no installations or facilities were potentially exposed to the virus.
Australian Associated Press
