CHO direction forcing COVID-19 tests in Katherine later deleted from government website after roadblocks in town

CHO direction forcing COVID-19 tests in Katherine later deleted from government website after roadblocks in town

by | Dec 9, 2021 | COVID-19, News | 0 comments

A chief health officer direction forcing people in a Katherine East “risk zone” to get COVID-19 tests, and not allowing them past NT Police roadblocks if they refused, was deleted from the NT Government’s coronavirus website late last night with no explanation, hours after the government began enforcing it.

NT Police had set up roadblocks to enforce the CHO direction, preventing residents from leaving their neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon, while Chief Minister Michael Gunner told a press conference in the morning all residents in the area would be forced to have a test, even if they were not planning to leave.

A source told the NT Independent there were three police roadblocks keeping people in the zone as of Thursday night.

Dr Hugh Heggie’s Direction 118 went online at 4:15pm Thursday – which was slated to end at 5pm on Sunday, December 12 – stated that a person must not exit the COVID19 risk zone in Katherine unless they produce evidence of a negative PCR COVID19 test result done 72 hours before they try to leave.

But the direction was gone by midnight.

The CHO Direction 118 was taken off the NT Government coronavirus website without explanation late on Thursday night.

 

Under the direction, health practitioners involved in the COVID19 response, police officers, authorised officers, or a person approved by Dr Heggie are exempt.

People who need to leave to seek urgent medical treatment are also exempt.

The direction states that an authorised officer may request a person in the COVID-19 risk zone to have a COVID-19 test and if they refuse, the “authorised officer may direct the person to travel to a place specified by the authorised officer”.

In the direction there was no explanation of what that “place” is, but a press release on the NT Government coronavirus website said people would be forced into the Howard Springs quarantine centre. That press release which had no published time, and was still live at midnight, did not mention that people could not leave the area.

The Direction 118 information was still on the NT Health Facebook page at midnight.

Some Katherine residents took to Facebook to express their confusion last evening, with some saying police officers at the roadblocks had told them by around 10:30pm that they were no longer enforcing the zone lockdown.

It remains unclear why they stopped the enforcement.

One of the Katherine East COVID-19 roadblocks. Picture: Supplied

Chief Minister Michael Gunner told a press conference on Thursday morning that a new CHO direction would be issued in the afternoon, but he gave no indication that people would not be able to leave the area without a test.

“The test results today are pretty standard and pretty expected but we do still have concerns about Katherine,” he said.

“It is clear there are a small collection of households in about three or four streets in Katherine East that are largely unvaccinated, and spend a substantial amount of time together and are still a high risk.

“…We have decided this morning to implement a more intense testing effort in these streets in the next few days.

“A new chief health officer direction will be issued later today that applies only to residents in these streets and nowhere else in Katherine.

“And teams will be going door-to-door testing residents and visitors to those streets so we will be absolutely certain about where the virus is.

“We are being as targeted as possible to catch and kill this virus.”

Mr Gunner said an unvaccinated teenager who tested positive to COVID-19 yesterday, lived in a Katherine East house shared by eight people, one of whom was a three-year-old who had tested positive on Monday. On Wednesday, the three-year-old’s mother tested positive in Royal Darwin Hospital, as well as an infant who lived in the house and was already in quarantine.

Dr Heggie said there was a small cluster of houses in part of Katherine East where “so far, things are looking good”.

“It’s narrowed down to a small number but we’re still working with the community and the health service in that area,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr Gunner said the girl had 30 close contacts spread across three households in Katherine East, all in the Bicentennial Rd wastewater catchment.

Mr Gunner said they were expecting more cases in Katherine, with wastewater testing results from the Bicentennial Road catchment showing a positive “higher than it has been for some time”.

But he said more cases would not necessarily lead to a reinstated lockout. Lockout restrictions in Greater Katherine lifted at noon on Wednesday, with a mask mandate to remain in place for a further week.

“We are going to keep seeing cases pop up. A case here and there does not necessarily mean a community goes into lockdown or lockout. It depends on where it is, what the links are, what the vulnerabilities are,” Mr Gunner said.

“This is part of our new normal in the Territory.”


Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect the CHO Direction 118 was taken down before midnight.

 

Ads by Google

Ads by Google

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

Adsense

0 Comments

Submit a Comment