A 21-year old woman who travelled to the Territory from Cairns has been announced as the third case of COVID-19 linked to the first case in Katherine.
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Chief Minister Michael Gunner said that the woman - who has only had one dose of COVID-19 vaccine - had started to show symptoms after arriving from Cairns on October 29.
"She was identified as a close contact yesterday," Mr Gunner said at a briefing on Saturday.
"She has not been fully vaccinated having only received her first dose.
"She became symptomatic today. She's being interviewed right now and contact tracing as commenced.
"There may be more exposure sites for Darwin, so it is critical that everybody in the Top End pay very careful attention to these, and look for updates throughout the day."
The 21-year-old woman was a close contact of the RAAF Tindal airbase contractor in his 20s who was the first case in the most recent COVID-19 outbreak.
She is at Howard Springs along with other close and household contacts of the original case, including a 55-year-old man who was last night announced as the second case and cases in Humpty Doo.
Mr Gunner said that waste water testing in Katherine had come back as negative.
The Katherine Club has been downgraded from a close contact to a casual contact site.
Acting CHO Charles Pain said that they still did not know where the community transmission of the virus had come from and that is was doubtful that the Cairns traveller was the link.
"The sequencing of infectiousness doesn't imply that is the actual source," he said.
"And so, unfortunately, we're still not clear about that."
Further genomic testing is being carried out to determine the origin of the outbreak.
Katherine residents have been urged to get tested if they have been at a contact site or are showing symptoms and to get vaccinated.
There were 309 COVID tests done in Katherine on Friday and a further 990 tests done in the Top End, for a total of 1299 tests.
Yesterday was the second highest vaccination day on record for the Territory with more than 2150 jabs, including "excellent" numbers in Katherine, Coolalinga and Palmerston.
"That's great," Mr Gunner.
"Thank you to every Territorian who has joined Team Vaxxed over the last few days, it's great to have you on board."
"There are still appointments available and the lines are not too long at the drive-through sites.
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"So if you do have symptoms, don't put it off, please get it done."
Dr Pain said there was a surge of people people in Katherine yesterday, "but we expected it ... we're keeping up with it."
"There was some difficulties ... some people came forward from Tindal ... but we've managed that over the past 24 hours," he said.
Chief of Police Jamie Chalker said that Katherine residents were being compliant with the lockdown restrictions.
"We added more yesterday - including Snapper Rocks and Jetty Restaurant on Saturday, and Lola's on Sunday," Mr Gunner.
"If you were are these locations in Darwin over the weekend, check the times on the website to see if they apply to you.
"We also changed the Mantra exposure site from the Mantra Pandanas to the Mantra Esplanade. Getting hotels wrong is a longstanding Darwin tradition, but upon further work we now have the correct site.
"We now have 100 close contacts identified from our exposure sites but that is expected to grow today.
"Of these 80 have been contacted and are isolating. Nineteen of these have returned negative tests. We are working to contact, isolate and test the remaining 20.
"Over the next 24 hours we will see a lot more tests results roll in for these close contacts which will give us a better idea of how we are tracking."
He urged everybody to be careful and follow the rules.
"It's one more person who is less likely to catch COVID," Mr Gunner.
"One more person who is less likely to spread COVID. One more person less likely to get seriously sick from COVID. One more person less likely to die from COVID."
He said today was a "pretty good day, but it's also a critical day".
"We haven't yet seen any spread beyond the very close contacts. That's good news," he said
"But there are still too many unknowns. Today our priority is getting the test results from close contacts back, getting the new exposure sites added and doing the contact tracing for the new case.
"Hopefully tomorrow morning we will have a much clearer picture of how we are going, and we can make the big decisions then.
"Until then, hang tight. Keep doing what you are doing. Keep being great.
"Keep getting tested. And if you haven't yet - get vaccinated."
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Juanita Greville
If you've got a story to tell, I'd love to hear from you. Email me at juanita.greville@austcommunitymedia.com.au
If you've got a story to tell, I'd love to hear from you. Email me at juanita.greville@austcommunitymedia.com.au
