“While there were compassionate reasons for her decision to visit Victoria,there were not compassionate reasons for lying to the Territory and coming here from a hotspot,” Mr Gunner said on Facebook at the time.
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“She has been issued a $5024 fine and she will also pay for her $2500 stay at Howard Springs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Don’t lie. Don’t be selfish.
Mr Gunner also incorrectly identified the woman as a sex worker. The post was amended and he apologised.
Talking to the NTNews about the error,the womansaid she was “so f---ing livid at the moment” and that it was “not good for my mental health” being in Howard Springs quarantine.
Queensland and South Australian police could not say if she had been,or would be,fined in their jurisdictions. SA was still investigating almost a month later.
“Cluster one”,as it became known,levelled off at three cases by November 6.
The 19 NT cases she seeded in the new “cluster two”,all of them Aboriginal,have been flown to the Howard Springs quarantine facility outside Darwin alongside their close contacts. One of the cases was in hospital receiving oxygen.
Mr Gunner said 49 people had been removed from Robinson River,about 800 driving kilometres south-east of Katherine. Of the community’s 220 official residents,close to 95 per cent identified as Aboriginal in the 2016 Census.
Mr Gunner said high vaccination rates in Robinson River had been crucial to the positive overnight result.
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“Only 15 people remain to receive a first dose and I understand they all want to be vaccinated today,” he said.
Acting Chief Health Officer Charles Pain said infections had been detected across three households,but it was likely they would discover more.
Many remote communities of the Territory are strongly linked by families and cultural obligations. People move regularly and often across great distances.
Along with low vaccination rates in some communities,particularly in Central Australia and the Barkly region,high mobility remained a major threat.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday activated a section of the Biosecurity Act to prevent people leaving or entering Robinson River and surrounding homelands except for essential purposes.
However,Dr Pain said the new cluster two emergency appeared to be cutting through vaccine hesitancy and complacency.
“I feel we have turned the corner. I feel people really understand,” he said. “There are still communities where rates are low – and we can only repeat those requests for people to come forward – but there is an enormous effort going on.”
Almost half the Robinson River and Katherine outbreak were family members of Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy.
“I have been speaking to many of my cousins who are in Howard Springs facility,” she toldSky News on Thursday.
“Obviously,they know they’re in the right place. It is a difficult time and an anxious time for them. But they’re sounding a lot better.
“Certainly my sister,when I spoke to her for the first time yesterday,which was so good to hear her voice,she’s slowly recovering. But look,it’s still a little bit early yet.”