There are about 1000 people from COVID-19 hotspots in self quarantine compared to only 143 in supervised quarantine in the Territory, because the first group arrived in the NT before July 17, taking advantage of the lag between hotspots being declared and the stricter requirements being enforced.
Police say they are monitoring the travel time taken by people from Australian COVID-19 hotspots to get from a Territory border to mandatory quarantine facilities, as they released the number of people who have come to the NT since Friday after mandatory quarantine was dropped for those arriving from non-hotspots.
A man from a state police would not reveal, who breached his mandatory quarantine by leaving his hotel room telling authorities he “didn’t want to stay in four walls”, has been the first to be given the increased fine of $5,056, NT police said.
Anyone breaching mandatory quarantine in the NT should be prepared to pay an expanded infringement penalty of more than five times the previous amount as the Territory borders reopen today, the Gunner Government announced Friday morning.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner says he will get serious about imposing tougher penalties for people caught breaching mandatory quarantine regulations, as police reported six more people were fined over the last two days for breaches.
Northern Territory health professionals are currently training for a potential outbreak of coronavirus in remote Indigenous communities ahead of the Territory’s borders opening on Friday.
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner has declared Sydney a hotspot, meaning visitors to the NT from the country’s most populous city will face mandatory supervised quarantine at their own expense, but not until Friday
Faced with increased pressure to immediately block Victoria and NSW residents from entering the NT due to outbreaks and clusters of coronavirus in those states, Health Minister Natasha Fyles said Tuesday that the Gunner Government will sleep on it.
Tensions between people in self-quarantine and police are reaching new heights, with NT Police admitting they could not locate one man “for a number of days” and another who told cops he’d fight the fines in court.
The Gunner Government’s claim that it has no legal jurisdiction to turn Victoria residents away from the NT’s borders is not true, one of the country’s leading constitutional law experts has told the NT Independent.
The Northern Territory has recorded another case of coronavirus – this time in a US marine, Health Minister Natasha Fyles has said.
Once again, the police declined to release where the four came from or explain why nobody has been sent to supervised quarantine after breaching health orders.
