The community of Lajamanu has been working together to slow the spread of COVID-19, but the health staff on the ground are struggling with an ever-increasing workload and ever-decreasing resources.
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The remote community and its surrounding homelands, located around six hours southwest of Katherine, went into a seven-day lock-in on Monday afternoon to stop the spread of the virus following discussions between the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation Katherine West Health Board and the NT Government.
The lock-in means residents can move freely within the community but cannot leave without an authorised reason, and entry to the area is also restricted.
Chief executive of Katherine West, Sinon Cooney, said there were now 27 active cases in Lajamanu, with drastic action needed to stop the spread.
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"[With] the infectivity of Omicron and that sort of perfect storm of minimal public health measures, high movement of population and overcrowded housing, it spreads very quickly," he said.
"I think people [in Lajamanu] expect that's a sensible option to stop people from coming into their community and also to protect other communities locally."
According to the NT Government, Lajamanu has a first dose vaccination rate of 83 per cent and a second dose rate of 63 per cent.
Mr Cooney said recent outbreaks have been especially challenging for staff who are working to control bigger outbreaks with less resources than earlier in the pandemic.
"The community's been really responsive and our team has been working around the clock to test people who want to be tested," he said.
"We'd love to be out on the ground, being able to have more nuanced conversations going 'This is the new way. We can't test everyone in the community. We don't have all these resources,' but we just can't do that because the capacity is so limited because we're so busy.
"It's overwhelming for staff, and they've got a huge workload. And obviously, they also run the risk of themselves becoming COVID positive in almost all of this and then creating another tension."
He said the organisation has had to use a lot more of their own resources to manage the restrictions compared to earlier in the pandemic.
"There isn't a huge influx of policing to be able to manage things like lock-ins, lockdowns and manage the isolation of positive cases and close contact to - the local police are doing a fantastic job but they're limited into what they can achieve."
Despite supply chain issues impacting the whole of the Territory's access to food, Mr Cooney said Lajamanu is well-stocked to weather the lock-in.
"All the feedback I've...from those local stores is almost always keep four to six weeks of supplies on hand in community," he said.
"So at this stage, we haven't had any supply issues. In the bush where we're only ever used to getting one delivery a week...people are used to making do with existing resources."
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