The Northern Territory’s current COVID outbreak has spread to Central Australia, with six new positive cases confirmed in the towns of Tennant Creek and Yulara.
Three women and a child have tested positive to the virus in Tennant Creek, plunging the town of 3500 people into a snap lockdown until 5pm next Monday.
The decision has been welcomed by Barb Shaw, CEO of the Aniyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation, but she said a lockdown should've happened after a positive waste water test was confirmed last Sunday.
Ms Shaw said the Barkly region is in the top three most vulnerable local government areas in Australia.
"We are certainly disappointed that they haven't moved quickly," she told NITV News.
"We've always made that very clear, as soon as there's any signs of COVID in the community, they should immediately go into action, and in this case we would have expected an immediate lockdown."
Barb Shaw. Source: Supplied
Acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison confirmed one of the four positive cases in Tennant Creek was a woman with links to the Katherine cluster, who may have been infectious in the community since Sunday.
"This a serious situation, Tennant Creek is a major transit centre and there is is a vast amount of movement in and out (with) many people are about to embark on Christmas and school holidays," she said.
Ms Shaw said such considerations should have been made earlier.
"Certainly it has been a long time since this was discovered, and putting Tennant Creek into lockdown... should've happened a couple of days ago."
Northern Territory police have ordered people to stay home, and have set up checkpoints around the town to enforce the strict public health orders.
Residents are allowed to leave their home to get tested and vaccinated. Tennant Creek has some of the lowest testing and vaccination rates in the territory.
Barb Shaw said the fear of being sent to one of the territory's only two quarantine facilities in Darwin or Alice Springs, hundreds of kilometres from home, is contributing to the low rates .
"One of the things that's holding people back from coming forward to get tested (is) they think they will be put straight into a lock-in facility and in isolation"
A mask mandate has also been imposed for communities around Tennant Creek.
Two male resort workers at Yulara near Uluru also tested positive.
The Territory government have described them as low risk and has not imposed any restrictions on the township, despite its proximity to the Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu.
The total number of cases in the current outbreak is 100.
