The remote community of Lajamanu has seen a major jump in vaccinations in recent weeks, but is unclear exactly what the vaccination rate is, according to Chief Minister Michael Gunner.
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Lajamanu, around 560km southwest of Katherine, transitioned into a lockout on Wednesday after a positive wastewater result saw the community being sent into lockdown at the weekend.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced on Wednesday that the most recent wastewater test had returned a negative result and there have been no positive cases in the community.
The community is serviced by the Katherine West Health Board, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, with chief executive Sinon Cooney saying the community has seen a sharp uptick in vaccinations.
"I think we're at 66 per cent first dose and at about 36 per cent second dose, but we've had a big increase in vaccinations in the last fortnight so that's why there's a gap between first and second dose," he said.
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However, Mr Gunner said he believes that rate could be higher, with a need for "administrative reconciliation" to be done between the NT Government and the Katherine West Health Board's figures.
"We've gone door to door to every house in Lajamanu now and the vaccination rate door to door - everyone's basically had one or two doses," Mr Gunner said.
"There appears to be a higher vaxx count than what was officially reported. We're doing that work today to really double check the vaccination rate."
Mr Gunner said the vaccination rate could also be higher than reported for other remote communities.
Mr Cooney said there was still some resistance to vaccination among some groups in Lajamanu despite the recent lockdown.
"We're just having lots of gentle conversations and trying to encourage people to get vaccinated because we know that's the best way to stay safe from COVID. We know that other responses or assertive responses are less effective," he said.
"It's really about just trying to meet people where they're at and support them to make the right decision, but also respecting their choice if they choose not to because we're not forcing anyone to do anything.
"We're going to keep trying, we won't give up."
Mr Cooney said the response in Lajamanu to the lockdown had largely been positive.
"The initial response was swift and really well organised, certainly by our team on the ground. They did an awesome job straight away identifying high risk clients who had been in the Katherine region," he said.
"The feedback that I'd had from key community members has all been 'we want to avoid this COVID case if it's out there so we want people to stay home and stay safe.'
"Everyone has behaved really well and responded really well to it."
He said although Lajamanu appears to be in the clear for now, they remained concerned that the wastewater results could have been from a case which has since moved to another community.
"Whatever triggered this response, we may never know what that is. But we're still being really vigilant," Mr Cooney said.
"We're keeping a close eye on the other wastewater results as well to make sure that there isn't an emerging positive popping up elsewhere."
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