An infant from the Binjari community has tested positive for COVID-19 while in the Howard Springs quarantine camp the Chief Minister Michael Gunner has said.

Mr Gunner told a press conference this morning that the baby had been in the facility with family for their entire infectious period, and there were also two crew members from a London Qantas flight who had tested positive in Howard Springs.

Acting chief health officer Dr Charles Pain said the flight crew had been in the H Hotel in Darwin city where they had been quarantining.

Dr Pain said the hotel did not have any private residents and it had a dedicated accommodation for crews.

He said there had been a total of 59 COVID-19 cases in the Katherine Robinson River outbreak.

Mr Gunner said they had conducted more than 700 tests of residents in Lajamanu, with more than 240 test results expected tonight, but so far there had been no positives, and the waste water had now turned negative as well. They will now go to a lockout.

Mr Gunner said Robinson River would finish its lockout period at 6pm tonight.

While in Katherine he said there were positive waste water tests in the Bicentennial Rd and Chambers Rd catchments.

Dr Pain said it was entirely possible that there were some people in Katherine who had COVID-19.

Dr Pain said there was one elderly lady still being treated for COVID-19 in hospital and while not in intensive care, she was being given oxygen intermittently.

The press conference came after NT Police said three people had escaped from the Howard Springs facility in the early hours of the morning. Several hours later police announced they had been caught.

On Monday Health Minister Natasha Fyles announced a man on a repatriation flight that landed in Darwin from South Africa last week had tested positive for the Omicron COVID-19 variant, heightening concerns about mingling between security zones at the Howard Springs quarantine facility.

Ms Fyles said the man had been in quarantine at the facility since arriving in Darwin from Johannesburg on November 25.

On Saturday the NT Independent reported quarantine detainees at Howard Springs had been jumping between the red zone – where people with COVID-19 and some of their close contacts reside – into other sections of the facility to see family and friends.

The accusations came after a male detainee jumped a fence Friday evening into a waiting ute that took him to a Mitchell St bar, before police could identify him.