A firm date for when coronavirus restrictions could be lifted across the Northern Territory is still in the air, but Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he will know more by the end of the month.

Mr Gunner said on Monday that he will be following Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s lead on the issue, but expected to know what the month of May will look like soon.

“The Prime Minister has flagged that about half-way through May we will all look at what we may be able to scale back,” Mr Gunner said on Mix 104.9.

“That’s a bit of a rough timeline, but I want to be really hesitant about it being a hard timeline. We can’t give a hard timeline.”

Mr Gunner has faced pressure to lift restrictions so businesses can slowly phase back into operating again.

“We originally flagged six months for measures on this and in many ways it will still be six months,” he said.

“Considering the success of the country we can look at how we scale back between now and then over that six-month period.

“I think the last thing that goes will be the Territory border restrictions, and the last thing for the nation will be Australia’s border restrictions.”

Mr Gunner added while no cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in more than two weeks, lifting restrictions should only be done once, when  it is safe and to avoid a potential outbreak.

“Some of them (businesses) are saying we want to open once and that’s business as normal. I’m extremely mindful of only having to do it once,” he said.

“I’ve asked businesses to shut down. I can’t ask them to open and then ask them to shut down again. It could be the death of them.

Michael Gunner

“It’s got to be once and I have to get it right.”