Three-week-old baby tests positive to Covid as Katherine, Robinson River cluster grows

A three-week-old baby girl is one of the six new infections recorded in the Northern Territory on Wednesday as its worst Covid-19 outbreak has again grown.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner — who described the situation as “serious” — said all new infections were in Indigenous Australians and close contacts of other cases.

Five were from the remote community of Robinson River, including a 13-year-old girl and the baby, while the other was a 36-year-old man from Katherine.

Mr Gunner said he feared people would die from Covid-19 in the NT.

He urged residents who hand-wrote check-ins to keep their writing legible and correctly fill out information because the Top End’s health team was “behind the eight-ball” trying to locate people who visited exposure sites.

“I fear it will take lives in the Territory before the year is out,” Mr Gunner said.

“Please, please don't let it be your life. The vaccine is your best defence with ample supply across the Territory.

“Instead of using our time to get in contact with close contacts and organising testing, contact tracers have to use that time to go through CCTV to identify everyone.

“We know how quickly Delta can spread within households, and we cannot be sure yet that it has not spread further into the Robinson River and Katherine communities, or wider in the Territory.”

New testing requirements are now in place for everyone who attended Robinson River since November 11 and Katherine since November 7, regardless if they have symptoms or not.

They must isolate until a negative result is received.

The recent cluster has now reached a total of 19 cases.

Of the 234 close contacts identified, only 107 people have been contacted and put into isolation.

Acting chief health officer Charles Pain said it was vital that higher levels of vaccination were needed to avoid the Territory‘s healthcare system from crumbling under pressure.

“I don't want to sugar coat that it is a significant risk to us,” he said.

“We are very concerned about it.”

Authorities are yet to have wastewater testing results returned across the Territory to see if possible seeding had occurred.

Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy confirmed nine of her relatives tested positive the virus on Tuesday, two of them five-year-old twins.

The Covid-19 outbreak in remote indigenous communities is “our worst fears realised”, she said, with more urgent action required to keep First Nations people safe.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has enacted a ban on people entering and leaving Robinson River and surrounding homelands in a bid to stop further Covid spread.

Speaking to the Nine network on Wednesday, Senator McCarthy — whose sister was the first person to test positive in the remote Robinson River area — said due to rampant vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, any new cases could have more serious illness.

“This is perhaps our worst fears realised, really, in terms of First Nations communities,” she said.

“(Misinformation) has very much so (been a drama). We do have to recall that our First Nations people were in the higher-rated priority for the vaccination. I despair that never occurred.”

As of Wednesday, 84.4 per cent of NT residents have had one dose of the vaccine, while 71 per cent are fully vaccinated.

The rate of vaccination in Katherine is lower, with just 68.4 per cent having had one dose and just 54 per cent fully vaccinated.

Katherine will remain in lockdown until at least Monday, with a mask mandate in place for the entire territory.