The Northern Territory’s deputy chief health officer has reversed the government’s position of the past several months and has urged Territorians to wear face masks in busy public spaces following the announcement the NT will open its borders to most residents of regional Victoria in four weeks.

As it stands, people living in central and regional Victoria must spend 14 days in mandatory quarantine when they arrive in the NT.

But Chief Minister Michael Gunner today flagged a future change in regional Victoria’s hotspot status, with the exception of East Gippsland Shire, Mitchell Shire, greater Geelong, and the Macedon Ranges, on the proviso cases of COVID-19 remain low for another four weeks.

“In the race to win back visitors and in the race to win back jobs, the Northern Territory is at the front of the pack. And we are in this position because of our nation’s leading hotspots policy,” Mr Gunner said in a press conference this morning.

The announcement comes after the NT’s Security and Emergency Management Committee met on Friday to review Victoria’s rates of the virus, following more than six weeks of a strict stage four lockdown in response to a second wave.

Mr Gunner said regional Victoria has “crushed” coronavirus as its case rates continue to remain low into a second week.

“Almost all of regional Victoria has not seen any confirmed cases of coronavirus for the past fortnight,” Mr Gunner said. “The rolling daily average for cases diagnosed in regional Victoria over the past fortnight is point three – next to nothing.

“There are currently just three active cases in all of regional Victoria. There have been zero cases from an unknown source in regional Victoria in the past fortnight.

“The critical factor for making this decision is regional Victoria’s success in easing their restrictions without spreading the virus.

“For more than a fortnight now they’ve had few restrictions on travel, they’ve been able to mix in their community, they’ve been able to eat out of pubs and restaurants all without community transmission occurring. They are stepping out of lockdown while still staying safe.

“Just like our policy with Sydney, we’re building in a four week buffer, two full replication cycles of the virus to lock in this progress and be absolutely certain they are safe as they can be.

“Just like we safely separated the rest of New South Wales from greater Sydney for the purposes of traveling to the Northern Territory, we’re doing the same for regional Victoria and greater Melbourne.”

‘They deserve our gratitude’: Gunner on Victorians

Mr Gunner said the Emergency Management Committee would review excluded regions and metropolitan Melbourne as the weeks progress, but for now, the hotspot status would remain in place for Melbourne.

In response to concerns the extended travel bubble could jeopardise the Territory’s title as the nation’s safest jurisdiction, Mr Gunner asserted border controls would remain strong and stay in place for at least another year.

“While we spent the weekend at the footy or fishing or at Rebound… Victorians are staying home, and staying apart, to keep themselves, and the country safe, but that they deserve our gratitude,” he said.

“For anyone who might be concerned, this is the exact same plan we implemented in New South Wales, and it has worked.

“Police are still on our borders and in our airports questioning all arrivals to be sure they are safe and not from a hotspot. And they’ve shown in the past that liars get caught.

“Complacency remains the consistent threat, as we continue to live safe lives here in the Territory, we must remain ever vigilant.”

Territorians urged to wear masks in busy places

Territorians might have to start carrying face masks, and donning them in areas where social distancing is difficult such as supermarkets, or large events to “prevent a second wave” of COVID-19 in the NT, Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Charles Pain said.

While acknowledging the “odd” timing of the caution, Dr Pain said health authorities are in the midst of ironing out what the advice might look like, adding the Northern Territory needed to be “extra vigilant” as hotspot statuses are revoked.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Charles Pain.

“If we’re going to enjoy the benefits of opening up, we have to, every one of us, behave and be extremely careful. We all know what we need to do. Physical distancing, even the wearing of mask, avoiding contact, all of those measures have been drummed into us over weeks and months,” Dr Pain said.

“As we’re going down the downward slope of the epidemic it may seem a bit odd that we’re issuing advice about masks… what we want people to do is we want them to have a mask. That’s the first thing. And the second thing is if they can’t distance, so they can’t keep their physical distance one and a half metres, for example, in a supermarket where it’s busy and so on, have your mask and just put it on.

“That’s really what we would like to start to see in the community. There are a few people wearing masks, of course, much more often elsewhere in the country, but in New South Wales, for example, it’s still quite common to see people wearing masks.

“So we’d actually like to encourage that behavior, it gets us ready for the next possible phase of this, if there is an outbreak.”

Mr Gunner said the border will open to regional Victoria on November 2, if case numbers remain low.