In less than a week, the Northern Territory will allow quarantine-free travel for all interstate arrivals, while at the same time local health authorities are grappling with a steadily spreading COVID-19 outbreak and stubbornly low vaccination rates in some communities.
Key points:
- Late Tuesday night, NT Health confirmed two new positive cases in two separate remote communities
- Aboriginal health leaders are worried health authorities are not taking a strong enough approach to contain the current outbreak
- Remote residents say there's been a lack of consultation ahead of changes to the NT's border rules, which come into effect on December 20
The sudden switch to a so-called "COVID normal" approach is worrying Aboriginal health leaders, including Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT's head, John Paterson.
"Is this a matter of survival of the fittest?" asked AMSANT's Mr Paterson. "Is that what they're really saying?"
Late on Tuesday night, two new remote Northern Territory cases were confirmed by NT Health.
In response to the cases, Kalkarindji, Daguragu, Timber Creek and Gilwi are now in lockouts, which will be in place until 2pm this Friday.
Both of the new cases were reported as "presumptive" positives Tuesday morning, one in Timber Creek and another in Kalkarindji, both remote Indigenous communities located south-west of Katherine.
Both those communities have double-dose vaccination rates below 80 per cent: Timber Creek at around 64 per cent, and Kalkarindji at about 68 per cent fully vaccinated.
The NT's current COVID outbreak is now at 90 cases.
AMSANT: 'It's too early'
Despite promising surges in some Top End communities during the most recent outbreak, there remain communities in the Barkly and Central Australia where the vaccination rates are very low, some less than 20 per cent double-dose.
All the while, the re-opening date for the territory edges closer.
From December 20, arriving from anywhere — including cities such as Melbourne and Sydney, where COVID has taken hold — can travel to the Northern Territory without quarantine.
"It's too early," Mr Paterson, speaking on behalf of Aboriginal health groups in the NT.
"We're going to have a huge explosion of the virus breakouts in the Northern Territory."
AMSANT wants the re-opening date delayed until mid-January and has also called for an immediate lockdown of the Big Rivers region while authorities try to work out how far the virus has spread from the Katherine cluster.
'No clear guidelines for communities'
After December 20, travellers will have to have received a negative test in the 72 hours before they arrive in the Territory and have another two once they are in the NT.
They will have to stay in a high-vaccination zone for the first two weeks which, so far, is only Darwin, Alice Springs and the Katherine local government area.
That rule has been criticised by tourism operators, who are concerned that locking tourists out of popular sites, such as Kakadu and Litchfield national parks, is not much of a reopening at all.
However, even with the protections, some remote residents — including West Arnhem Regional Council Mayor Matthew Ryan — are worried about the reopening date and the confusion around it.
"It's uncertainty. It's no clear guidelines for the communities," Cr Ryan said, speaking from his home in Maningrida, 500 kilometres east of Darwin.
"It's frustrating, because the community hasn't been taught properly on what information what people can and can't do. The Territory government should have been working with us," he said.
The territory government has flagged that it expects changes to the rules, only announced last week, in response to concerns around tourism and essential worker access to remote areas.
In addition to the COVID-19 situation, remote residents in West Arnhem, including Maningrida and Minjilang, are dealing with connectivity issues relating to phone and internet reception.
Cr Ryan was worried the failing communications infrastructure would already complicate any future outbreak in the community, and would make keeping up with rapid rule changes even more confusing.
"Without phone reception, you can't get to internet, anything … If COVID-19 comes, communication is vital in our in our communities," he said.
Telstra has been contacted for comment.
Other remote communities worry about tourism impact
Meanwhile, thousands of kilometres south of Darwin, the Aboriginal corporation representing the traditional owners of Uluru are concerned the new border rules will also hurt the local economy.
"We weren't consulted about any of the changes that Michael Gunner announced last week," said Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Thalia Bohl-van den Boogaard.
The group is pushing for Yulara to become a "high-vaccination zone", to allow tourists to travel to Uluru without first spending two weeks in Darwin, Katherine or Alice Springs.
"[The changes] were not fully thought-out and didn't take into consideration those communities that actually rely on tourism, and that have suffered quite a bit over the last two years," she said.
Many residents from Mutitjulu, the community at the base of Uluru, are artists that work at the art centre within the park, or are otherwise employed as park rangers, or work in the service town, Yulara.
"If Yulara doesn't become a high-vaccination zone … it means no tourists," Ms Bohl-van den Boogaard said.
"That means that we'll have to probably close our businesses, so that would be very bad news."
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