The Alice Springs area has been plunged into a three-day lockdown after a mine worker officials expect to test positive for COVID-19 spent several hours at the town's airport last week.
The worker left Newmont's Tanami mine site on Friday and spent seven hours at the Alice Springs airport before flying to South Australia.
Four of the five people he lives with in Adelaide and he has developed symptoms, NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner said.
"Like all our other decisions we will not take a punt on this," he told reporters on Wednesday.
"We will operate on the assumption that he has COVID-19 and we will operate on the assumption he was infectious while in the territory."
The lockdown direction applies to everyone inside the Alice Springs town council boundary, including hundreds of vulnerable Indigenous Australians who live in town camps.
There are five reasons people in the area can leave home: medical treatment, including for COVID-19 testing or vaccination; for essential goods; for essential work; for one hour of exercise a day with one other person; and to provide care.
“To everyone in Alice Springs, I know this is really challenging. The reason we are doing this lockdown is the size of the exposure window and the vulnerability of the local population. I will take no risk with that,” Mr Gunner said.
The Greater Darwin area is already in lockdown.
No new COVID-19 cases were found in the NT on Tuesday.
In a striking moment during the lockdown announcement, territory Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie spoke in the Arrernte language of the local Aboriginal people.
He told the community to stay put and that food and assistance would be provided.
"We're working closely with the [Central Australian Aboriginal Congress] and the council to make sure you're safe," he said.
With AAP.
