Fully-vaccinated domestic travellers arriving in the NT will be permitted to home quarantine from November 23 and will no longer need to undergo the 14-day mandatory supervised quarantine, Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced this morning.

A pilot home quarantine program will begin on Tuesday in Darwin involving 100 people, including returning boarding school students and Territorians from COVID-19 hotspot areas who have a suitable place to quarantine.

Around 30 returning Territorians to Alice Springs will also be allowed to home quarantine beginning November 1.

“Those who participate in the home quarantine pilot will be subject to the strictest testing and compliance conditions in the country,” Mr Gunner said at the press conference.

The NT government’s requirements to be eligible for home quarantining include:

• Being fully vaccinated;
• Supplying proof of a negative PCR test less than 48 hours before entering the Territory;
• Undergoing testing on day 1, 3, 5, 7, 12 and 17;
• Using the Good To Go App;
• Staying in a house, unit or apartment, hotel, or Airbnb; and
• Not having visitors during the quarantine stage.

The residence used for quarantine must be located in a high vaccination zone, where the full vaccination rate exceeds 80 per cent, and the following other criteria is met:

• Have 4G mobile phone coverage; and
• Have access to health services and COVID-19 testing clinics and police presence.

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said people who will take part in the pilot program will need to comply with the rules.

“To those people who will be selected on the pilot, it’s an enormous weight of responsibility that you will carry you will be there advocating on behalf of what the future looks like for the Northern Territory. So, an urge for compliance,” Commissioner Chalker said.

In the past, there have been several self-isolation breaches in the NT.

Mr Chalker did not elaborate how police will intensify surveillance and monitoring of those who will home quarantine.

Mr Gunner clarified that no fees will be paid to the government for those who undergo home quarantine. People who opt to stay in a private hotel or Airbnb will have to shoulder their own expenses.

Meanwhile, he said if a Territorian hosts someone who is home quarantining, they will be able to leave the home and continue to go about their daily life, so long as all eligible members of the home are fully vaccinated, and all members of the home comply with the same testing requirements – tests on days 1, 3, 5, 7, 12 and 17.

“If someone is undertaking home quarantine at your place, you do not also have to quarantine, you can still go to work and go about your life, as long as you’re fully vaccinated,” he said.

Hosts will not be allowed to leave the high vaccination zone until they have received a negative day 17 test.

Mr Gunner said the City of Darwin zone, which currently has a 78 per cent double dose vaccination rate, according to the government’s figures, was expected to reach the 80 per cent target by November 23 – the date the home quarantining program will commence in earnest.

He also said the Alice Springs and City of Palmerston areas, currently at a double dose rate of 77 and 76 per cent respectively, were scheduled to hit the target shortly afterward.

Returning overseas travellers on Commonwealth repatriation flights will still be required to quarantine at the Howard Springs Quarantine facility.

Anyone returning to the Territory on a Qantas London-Darwin commercial flight and leaving Darwin International Airport will be able to home quarantine, under the same conditions.

Everyone on these flights will be fully vaccinated and will be required to return a negative test prior to boarding.

Mr Gunner said creating high vaccination zones in remote communities will also be subject to further modelling from the Doherty Institute, and consent from Land Councils and Traditional Owners.

At this stage, unvaccinated people from hotspots can still enter the Territory with a permit, but they will have to quarantine at the Howard Springs Quarantine facility or Alice Springs facility and pay $2,500.