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A repatriation flight traveller to Darwin has tested positive for the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
Key points:
- Tests have confirmed the Omicron strain in a man in his 30s who arrived on a repatriation flight from Johannesburg
- The man has been in the Howard Springs quarantine facility since his arrival in Darwin
- Two new COVID-19 local cases confirmed today bring the NT outbreak total to 58
The man has been in quarantine at the Howard Springs quarantine facility since arriving from South Africa on November 25.
"I can confirm today that the genomic sequencing has shown that the man does have the Omicron variant of COVID-19," NT Health Minister Natasha Fyles said.
It comes as the Northern Territory has recorded two new local COVID-19 cases linked to the Katherine cluster in the past 24 hours.
The cases bring the total number of cases linked to the local cluster to 58.
One of the new cases is in a 17-year-girl from the Binjari remote community, who is a household contact, and has been in the Howard Springs quarantine facility for the whole of her infectious period.
The other is a 19-year-old Binjari woman who tested positive while in the Binjari community as part of the third round of testing conducted there.
The 19-year-old and her household contacts will be transported to Howard Springs.
Ms Fyles said because Binjari was still under hard lockdown conditions she was "confident" that the case wasn't a threat to the NT community.,
She said 153 tests had been conducted in Binjari on Sunday and there would be further testing done tomorrow.
Ms Fyles said the man with the Omicron strain had flown on a repatriation flight from Johannesburg to Darwin, and was then transported straight to the Howard Springs quarantine centre.
"He is in quarantine there," she said.
"He will be cared for appropriately."
She said Territorians should be reassured that the facility was separated by different zones.
"So our international repatriations do not interact with any of our local community members, Territorians, who may be in the facility as a close contact," she said.
Acting Chief Health Officer Charles Pain said he was "not overly concerned" about the arrival of the Omicron variant.
"We have a highly functioning quarantine facility there, we've had no breaches, [and] this individual — and the whole cohort of people because they were on a repatriation flight — is in quarantine."
All Lajamanu test results come back negative
All 147 tests conducted in the remote community of Lajamanu — which was placed in lockdown on Saturday after positive wastewater was detected — have come back negative, Ms Fyles said.
Further wastewater results are expected later this evening.
Dr Pain said authorities were yet to determine the origin of the community's positive wastewater result.
"There's a huge effort [that's] gone in there, and we haven't turned up any positive cases," he said.
"It's possible that there was somebody who moved through the community. But we cannot conclude anything yet."
Daily wastewater testing is also being done in nearby remote communities, including Yuendumu and Kalkarindj, to check for any cases there.
In Katherine, the latest wastewater results, which came back on Sunday night, have shown a presumptive positive for the Bicentennial Road catchment, as well as the Chambers Crescent catchment located upstream.
Ms Fyles said while the results were weakening, it was still important for anyone in Katherine experiencing symptoms to come forward and get tested.
"It could be someone shedding the virus, or it could be another case that we do need to become aware of," she said.
Dr Pain said in Robinson River, where day-12 testing is underway today, all signs were positive and restrictions were likely to be eased soon.
There are currently 377 close contacts linked to the Katherine COVID cluster.
Of those, 370 have been contacted, isolated and returned a negative test.
More than 1,800 people in the NT have been tested for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
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