Department of the Chief Minister and Cabinet
The Chief Health Officer has declared Greater Brisbane as a COVID-19 Hotspot for the purposes of travel to the Northern Territory from 9.15am on 8 January 2021.
This follows on from a woman in Greater Brisbane testing positive to a new, highly contagious strain of COVID-19.
Anyone travelling to the Northern Territory from a COVID-19 hotspot must undertake 14 days of mandatory, supervised quarantine at the Alice Springs or Howard Springs quarantine facilities at a cost of $2,500 per person. Quarantine will be undertaken at the first urban centre you arrive at, including for transit.
Those people travelling on flights from Brisbane, or those people travelling by road and arrived in the Northern Territory before 12.30pm today will have the option to return home or enter mandatory supervised quarantine at no cost.
The flight landing in Darwin at 1.25pm from Brisbane will also have the option to return home or enter mandatory supervised quarantine at no cost.
If you are intending to travel to the Northern Territory from a COVID-19 hotspot you are advised to rethink your plans. If you are a Territorian intending to travel to a hotspot you are advised to rethink your plans.
Additionally, anyone who has arrived in the Northern Territory prior to the hotspot declaration, and who has been to Greater Brisbane on or after 2 January 2021, has a COVID-19 test and undertakes self-quarantine until a negative test is returned. You do not need to have a COVID-19 test if you have only transited to the airport.
Please contact the COVID-19 hotline 1800 008 002 and identify yourself as a person who has been in a declared hotspot before you arrived in the NT.
The Chief Health Officer will continue to review and assess the COVID-19 situation in Greater Brisbane and will take into account COVID-19 monitoring and data collection, the extent of community transmission and risks to the NT community.
The risk of COVID-19 in our communities cannot be eliminated which is why it is important for everyone to follow all health directions.
· If you have COVID-19 symptoms, do not travel. Make sure you get tested and stay at home.
· Maintain a physical distance of 1.5 metres at all times.
· Wash your hands with soap and water and use hand sanitiser regularly.
· Cough and sneeze into your elbow or a tissue. Put your tissue in the bin straight away.
· Do not go to work if you feel sick.
· If you have symptoms, stay away from others and call a doctor or the NT COVID-19 Hotline on 1800 008 002.
To stay up to date with the latest information visit www.coronavirus.nt.gov.au
Quotes attributable to Chief Health Officer Dr Hugh Heggie
"We are taking all precautions and declaring Greater Brisbane a hotspot as part of our commitment to go hard and wide early.
"The positive case in Greater Brisbane is the first case of this new highly contagious strain of the virus, outside of quarantine in Australia.
"For this reason, we are taking a cautious approach while we wait and watch what happens across Greater Brisbane over their three-day lockdown period. The decisions made in the coming days will be critical."
"As we have seen happen before things can change quite quickly. We are taking action now to protect the health and safety of Territorians.
"As I will continue to say, it is important that we all remain vigilant. Regularly washing our hands and practicing physical distancing may seem like simple things but they are essential to keeping us safe."
