Cairns link in mystery Territory positive case
NORTHERN Territory authorities are still no closer to determining the patient zero who sparked a mass Covid-19 scare across Darwin and Katherine.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said on Friday the positive case, aged in his 20s, was being treated at the Centre for National Resilience and was being questioned in the hope of tracking down the source of infection.
On Friday and Saturday last week the man spent time with a person who travelled to the NT from Cairns.
Mr Gunner said that person was being questioned while in quarantine to see if they were the possible source.
The Katherine region entered an emergency 72hour lockdown over the locally acquired case as of 12.01am on Friday.
The unvaccinated contract worker, who was working at the RAAF Base Tindal in Katherine, is the NT’s first case of community transmission.
Greater Darwin has also entered its first “lockout” that only applies to unvaccinated people.
It comes as Covid positive patients could isolate for only seven days as students would be tested twice a week and contact tracing scaled back once 80 per cent are fully vaccinated, according to detailed Doherty Institute modelling.
The report, released after national cabinet met on Friday, is the first glimpse of how Australia could soon live with Covid.
It states that seven days of isolation for a Covid-positive person – who is fully vaccinated – is on average as effective at reducing transmission risk as 14 days.
It notes that when vaccination rates are at 80 per cent it will no longer be effective or sustainable to contact trace every location or casual contact and conduct lengthy interviews.
The research was presented to all state and territory leaders, who will now have to decide whether to change their road map to reopening, based on the modelling.
The report found that health systems could at 80 per cent fully vaccinated cope with international arrivals quarantining for seven days – or not at all.
The Prime Minister’s Office, in a statement, said the Doherty Institute found surveillance in “high-risk areas to identify outbreaks early” and contact management could reduce infections and keep schools open.
National cabinet was also told federal Health Minister Greg Hunt was considering allowing the return of cruise ships – though it would again be ultimately up to individual state leaders to allow it.
The window into a “new normal” came as no new local cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Queensland, despite three in the border town of Goondiwindi the previous day.
The town has now been dubbed one of the country’s first case studies on how high vaccination rates can help avoid lockdowns.
“I do think this is the first potential cluster like this that we’ve been able to confidently manage without locking down,” infectious diseases expert Paul Griffin said.