‘Really scary’: NT health workers fear for Indigenous communities amid Covid outbreak
Indigenous health workers in the Northern Territory town of Katherine say they fear for vulnerable community members – including many living on the streets or in severely overcrowded homes – as authorities scramble to contain a Covid outbreak.
The Northern Territory recorded no new Covid cases on Thursday, but the chief minister, Michael Gunner, says concern remains for “large vulnerable households” in Katherine and the tiny remote community of Robinson River.
In Katherine, the local Aboriginal health service, Wurli-Wurlinjang, was closed temporarily this week after being identified as a Covid contact site. Several staff, including homeless outreach workers, were ordered to isolate.
The chief executive of WurliWurlinjang, Suzi Berto, said the community had been “pretty overwhelmed” by the situation and the urgent need to protect vulnerable people.
“It’s really scary, it’s actually the unknown about what the impact is going to be on our people,” Berto said.
“One of the issues … is the fact that there’s no public transport or any type of transport for those exposed clients to be able to come in for testing, then accommodation when they get tested.
“As they get tested they’re being told to go home and quarantine. It’s very hard for them to go home and quarantine when they’ve got a house full of people, especially children.”
While the outbreaks in Katherine and Robinson River remain limited, the sorts of concerns raised echo those in the NSW town of Wilcannia, where social conditions, including overcrowding and a lack of services, hastened the spread of the virus.
Wilcannia was also left vulnerable by a slow vaccine rollout.
Wurli-Wurlinjang has been working for months to help get people vaccinated, and four weeks ago the service was given funding for four additional support workers to help the rollout.
“There’s been a lot of myths. People saying ‘we don’t want to get that’ or ‘we don’t believe in this because of their faith’.
“We’ve had a good success rate in the number of vaccinations that we’ve been providing to clients.”
Vaccination rates vary dramatically in rural and remote parts of the territory. Robinson River is relatively well protected – 87% of people have had a single dose and 77% are fully vaccinated.
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But about 50 remote communities across the Territory still have vaccination rates below 70%. In some communities in central Australia, rates remain below 10%.
Gunner said the rate in Katherine was 71% and that was “a concern”.
“I understand the issue may be a mobility one and we’re tasking the local team to provide options today,” he said.
“I have asked for on-the-ground advice about how vaccinations are going this morning and have seen a photo of a queue to our clinic. It may be that yesterday people were prioritising testing and this will shift to vaccinations today.
“Vaccinations remain one of the five reasons to leave your home in a lockdown. If you have family or a mate who isn’t vaccinated, encourage them to get their first dose today.
“We need to see a lift in the vaccination rate in Katherine and have confidence this is lifting in vulnerable pockets.”