Four Aboriginal organisations in the Northern Territory have penned an open letter to the Chief Minister calling for an immediate lockdown to combat the escalating COVID-19 outbreak.
Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, Central Land Council (CLC), Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) and Lhere Artepe Aboriginal Corporation, who have advocated for firm action since the beginning of the outbreak in early January, say their requests have been ignored – with action being too small, or taken too late.
The organisations told NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner there has been “significant failure” by government agencies in the region to implement plans that were mutually established before the outbreak.
“This has directly led to COVID spreading out of control in the Aboriginal communities of Central Australia and beyond,” they wrote.
“We don’t think we should have been put in the situation where it is primarily Aboriginal people who are being asked to take the risk that Omicron is only a mild virus, when public health measures properly implemented could have prevented many of the cases we are now seeing.”
Currently 90 per cent of positive cases in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal people, as confirmed by Northern Territory Deputy Chief Health Officer, Dr Charles Pain on Thursday.
The organisations claim that they’ve been forced to call on Mr Gunner to impose an immediate lockdown.
“This is our last chance to flatten the curve of new infections and hospitalisations and save lives that will otherwise be lost,” they wrote.
Central Australia Aboriginal Congress Acting CEO Josie Douglas told NITV News that the group have been regularly contacting senior government officials, however were ignored.
Josie Douglas. Source: SBS
Ms Douglas said the open letter was an act of desperation.
She said the current outbreak sweeping across the territory is the result of “government failure to deliver on its policy commitment” and emergency plan.
“Now it’s out of control in Alice Springs and its spreading to our remote communities,” she said.
The open letter outlined nine failures including the late introduction of mask mandates, lack of adequate resources for testing and contact tracing, failure to stand up adequate supervised isolation facilities and failure to seek additional support from the federal government.
Eight immediate steps required to combat further outbreak were also outlined, including the development of a Rapid Response Team in Alice Springs, distribution of Rapid Antigen Test and N95 masks, increased consultation with Land Councils and the federal government and uptake of the booster shot.
Ms Douglas emphasised the need for immediate action on the eight recommendations.
“In this instance it is about saving lives so we absolutely we need commonwealth assistance,” she said.
“We absolutely need the both working together to stand up an isolation facility in Alice Springs to cope with the growing number of COVID positive patients.”
The Acting CEO told NITV News that if their requests aren’t met, the “likely outcome is an absolute disaster”.
“It’s about taking action now so we can save lives,” she said.
Addressing the media on Friday, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said whilst he respected different communities hold different views, the government is committed to “going through the peak representative bodies for those communities”.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Omicron wave has peaked in many parts of Australia. Source: AAP
“That is the absolutely critical step in ensuring that we have the support and endorsement,” he said.
“Our position has always been that we would only put in place restriction movements with the consent of the Traditional Owners and the Indigenous communities and we’ve done that right throughout.”
Mr Hunt also emphasised that the government had implemented a “great number of biosecurity declarations and orders during the course of the recent two months”.
