A Territory medical expert has suggested delaying the release of the first group of foreign and Australian defence personnel who underwent quarantine in a Darwin CBD hotel until health officials and the public know what variant of coronavirus was found in the quarantine facility last week.

Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT spokesman Dr John Boffa said on Monday that NT Health should have waited for the results of the genomic testing on the variant of the virus that was contracted by two people from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) group before concluding the quarantine period.

Evidence of the mutated strains in Queensland earlier this month resulted in quarantine being restarted for everyone there.

“I think it all depends on the outcome of the genomic testing on the strain or the variant of the virus that the two positive people have, that was gonna take six days to come back,” Dr Boffa told ABC Radio Darwin.

“I don’t think it’s back yet. It hasn’t been made public if it is.

“If it is one of the more infectious variants, we [shouldn’t] be releasing anyone yet.”

Outside of a press release issued last Wednesday, NT Health authorities have not acknowledged the two positive cases discovered in quarantine at the Travelodge in Darwin’s CBD and have not responded to questions.

The government’s COVID media team refused to respond to questions on Monday over what strain the infected pair had or if the government is even aware yet.

Dr Boffa said it was crucial for NT Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie to be transparent to the public about the details of these cases.

“It’s really important that we know before anyone’s released, and maybe the authorities, maybe they do know, maybe they’ve got this back and they haven’t made it public,” Dr Boffa said.

“It’d be nice to hear from the Chief Health Officer that we’re not dealing with one of the more infectious variants of this virus which is why he’s going ahead with business as usual.

“If we are dealing with one of the more infectious variants, it’s not business as usual, you restart the quarantine period for everyone in that facility. From the moment those two people were positive.”

Mutant COVID-19 strains spread more easily

The NT Health statement last week said the two positive cases were in asymptomatic people who had been taken to Royal Darwin Hospital and that all of their primary contacts at the hotel were taken to Howard Springs as a precautionary measure.

Dr Boffa pointed to the Queensland Government’s move to close the Hotel Grand Chancellor after one of the more infectious variants was discovered and forcing all the people in that facility to restart their quarantine again from the day the new strain was discovered.

“That’s what we should potentially be doing here because you can’t assume within one of the more infectious variants that the traditional method of just going with primary contacts is sufficient,” he said.

“It can spread beyond what you think to be the primary contacts in a quarantine facility, particularly if part of the facility that’s being used is the indoor high-rise section of the facility rather than the open-air rooms and so there’s a few variables there.”

The ADF confirmed in a statement to the NT Independent that the first tranche of foreign military personnel totaling 83 people will leave the hotel facility as of Monday afternoon and into Tuesday. They will then travel to Victoria, New South Wales and the ACT.

“A total of 181 people (67 foreign military officers and their families) remain in quarantine,” an ADF spokesman said. “They are due to exit quarantine between 25 January and 1 February.

“Two foreign military officials and their families, a total of four people, have arrived in Darwin today.”

The ADF referred a question about the strain discovered in hotel quarantine to NT Health who did not respond.

Beginning January 7, additional precautions have been put in place across Australia to manage new variants related to COVID-19, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) has said.

These include a longer minimum period of isolation and assessment of infectiousness by experts before release from isolation. Stringent quarantine and infection control measures will be maintained to prevent the introduction of these viruses into the Australian community.

Research found that the two variants, B.1.1.7 that emerged in the UK and B.1.351 that emerged in South Africa, have been shown to spread more readily between individuals than previous SARS-CoV-2 viruses, that is, they have higher transmissibility.

However, there is still much not known about these viruses, including whether they result in cases being infectious for a longer period.

To date there is no evidence that either of these variants cause more severe disease or that the current vaccines would not be effective against the new variants, the AHPPC said in a release.