Low rate of Indigenous vaccination a worry, says minister, as NT Covid cases rise to seven
The minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, says he is worried about low vaccination rates in remote communities after a cluster of Covid-19 cases connected to a goldmine in the Northern Territory increased to seven on Monday.
Darwin and surrounding areas have been put into lockdown until 1pm on Friday amid concerns about the significant risk posed to Indigenous communities.
Wyatt told the ABC on Monday there was significant vaccine hesitancy in some communities. “I don’t want to see any deaths within our communities,” he said.
The minister pointed to a remote community near the Tanami mine, where only 18 people out of 400 had been vaccinated, with residents concerned about what they were reading on social media about the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“I am worried, I am concerned,” Wyatt said. “But we must keep level heads and we must focus on the logistical arrangements of making sure that we get vaccines to communities.”
Aboriginal health organisations in the NT say the vaccination rate in the Katherine west area – which services remote communities near the Tanami mine outbreak – is at around 20%.
But they warn the vaccination rate elsewhere in the NT is very low because of a lack of supply in remote clinics.
“Our population is very young, the bulk of our people are under 50 so we need a good supply of Pfizer on a regular basis, especially now there’s a real risk to remote communities,” CEO of the Aboriginal Medical Alliance of the NT, John Paterson, said.
AMSANT and the heads of the NT’s four big councils have urged all Aboriginal Territorians to “get vaccinated as soon as possible.”
“If you are in the greater Darwin lockdown area you must stay there. If you are outside the lockdown area you should stay in your community. That is the safest place for you and your family.
“Stay safe, stay on country, look after family.”
Wyatt said he was working with the NT government and with the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, to prevent infections reaching vulnerable people, “but that doesn’t rule out the possibility of somebody having come in contact [with an infectious person], going back to a community and then not being aware, and infecting others – and then we have an adverse outcome that we don’t want”.
The NT government imposed a lockdown on Sunday after the mine worker tested positive on Friday night. Subsequently, a number of his colleagues in the mine’s fly in-fly out workforce have tested positive.
The lockdown was extended to 72 hours, to act as a “circuit-breaker”, the NT chief health officer, Dr Hugh Heggie, said on Monday.
“One new case of Covid-19 has been recorded today, taking the total number of cases associated with the mine cluster to seven. This person was undertaking quarantine at Howard Springs when their positive test result was returned and remains there under the care of NT Health,” Heggie said.
“Covid-19 has made its way to the NT and it is vital that we get on top of this cluster early. The actions we take in the coming days will be paramount to stop the spread of Covid-19.”