The whole of the Northern Territory will enter a lockout from today as the number of COVID cases has more than doubled since yesterday.
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Chief Minister Michael Gunner told media on Thursday that 256 new COVID-19 cases had been recorded in the last 24 hours.
Of these cases, the source of 112 is still under investigation, 27 are confirmed cases of community transmission and 10 are close contacts.
This is a new daily record and up from 117 cases recorded yesterday.
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Mr Gunner said the spike in community transmission prompted the need for the lockout, which comes into effect at 1pm on Thursday and is set to end at 12 noon on Monday.
"Today's escalation in case numbers is concerning," he said.
"Our community transmission rate has grown in recent days".
The lockout means vaccinated people will be able to continue moving around the community while continuing to comply with the Territory-wide mask mandate.
Unvaccinated people will be forced to remain in lockdown conditions, only able to leave home for medical treatment and testing, essential goods and service and to care for a vulnerable person.
They are not permitted to go to workplaces or travel more than 30 kilometres.
"People who are not taxed fully-vaccinated present the greatest risk of spreading the virus and are the most at risk of becoming seriously ill if they get the virus," he said.
Access to vulnerable Indigenous communities has also been restricted with only residents and essential workers who show evidence of a negative rapid-antigen test permitted to enter.
Mr Gunner also said a vaccine pass system would be introduced from Monday at noon, with people over 16 required to present evidence of being vaccinated in "high-risk hospitality settings" including; pubs and clubs, casinos, restaurants, cinemas, ticketed events for over 500 people in urban centers in over 100 in non-urban centers.
He said this measure was aimed at taking pressure off the NT's health system, with 23 people currently in hospital with COVID-19 related illness, two of which are in the ICU.
"We're doing this early as a sustainable measure that provides the best ability to control community transmission and who ends up in our hospitals," Mr Gunner said.
"We know that at home and in a hospitality setting are the two highest risk locations for catching COVID. We know that the unvaccinated are at greater risk of needing acute clinical care if they catch COVID. That's why the vaccine pass is necessary for entering high risk hospitality settings"
With regards to testing, Mr Gunner said the position of the NT "differs from the National Cabinet decision", saying people we receive a positive result on a rapid antigen test (RAT) still need to have the result confirmed with a PCR test.
National Cabinet announced this week that it would begin counting positive RAT test results in their COVID case numbers.
"Down south the PCR testing system is broken, in the Territory over 70 per cent of PCR results are back in under 24 hours.
"A positive PCR gives us confidence in our caseload control of our case numbers."
Australian Associated Press
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