Aus Forces Deployed to Help Contain Covid Outbreak

DARWIN:
Units of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been deployed in the Northern Territory (NT) to help contain a latest Covid-19 outbreak among the Indigenous communities in the region.

The NT government on Monday reported two locally-acquired Covid-19 infections, taking the number of cases linked to the current outbreak to 37, reports Xinhua news agency.

Both of the new cases were in the remote town of Katherine where the outbreak began before spreading to the Indigenous communities of Robinson River and Binjari.

Michael Gunner, the Chief Minister of the NT, on Monday announced that Robinson River, where no new cases were found, will move from a lockdown to a lockout whereby strict restrictions will stay in place only for the unvaccinated.

Under a lockout, fully vaccinated residents are able to live normally within the lockout area. Everyone must wear a mask outside of their place of residence and travel is not permitted outside of the lockout area.

“Robinson River has shown all Territorians how a lockdown can be done and won in a remote community — a highly vaccinated community, a high rate of testing and responding rapidly to an outbreak,” he told reporters.

On Sunday he announced that ADF personnel would be deployed in the NT to assist with the outbreak after nine cases were reported in Binjari on the outskirts of Katherine.

As of Monday, Australia has registered a total of 199,659 Covid-19 cases and 1,948 deaths.

So far, 91.5 per cent of Australians aged 16 and over have received one vaccine dose and 85.1 per cent were fully inoculated against the virus, according to the Department of Health.