Alice Springs aged care facility placed into lockdown

ABC NEWS (Australia)

As a fresh wave of COVID-19 sweeps the nation, an aged care facility in the Northern Territory is in lockdown with a third of its residents testing positive for the virus.

Transcript

00:00 There have been 24 confirmed cases of COVID among residents here at the Old Timers Village

00:07 in Alice Springs, which is about a third of the residents.

00:10 There's also been a number of staff who have been infected.

00:15 But the facility have said that most of these residents are displaying few or no symptoms

00:22 at all.

00:23 However, we do know at least one has been taken to the Alice Springs Hospital for further

00:28 observations.

00:29 They've also said that almost all of the residents here are fully vaccinated and they believe

00:34 that is why their response to the virus has been less severe than it could have been otherwise.

00:42 Now this does feel like a story that's a throwback to 2021 and we've seen the Northern Territory

00:48 Council on the Aging implore the NT government to reignite some of those health messaging

00:54 campaigns that we saw back then.

00:57 These are around hand washing and wearing masks in crowded social settings.

01:02 They've said they're particularly worried about residents in the NT given our large

01:07 vulnerable population with many Indigenous people already grappling with some pre-existing

01:13 health conditions.

01:14 Since the start of this year there have been 6,000 or so cases reported in the NT, but

01:20 it's hard to know an exact figure because there is no longer mandatory reporting of

01:25 COVID-19.

01:27 That said, we have seen spikes right across the country with this fresh COVID wave and

01:32 there are warnings that there will be another COVID Christmas on our hands.

01:38 The NT Health Department have also said they've seen a spike in the number of people presenting

01:43 to the hospital with COVID, both here in Central Australia and in the Top End in just the past

01:50 couple of weeks.

01:51 There are currently about 30 people in hospital with COVID in the NT and that includes two

01:56 people in ICU wards.

01:59 They've also said that since the start of the pandemic there have been 111 deaths in

02:06 the NT from COVID-related deaths and that includes two people in just the past 28 days.

02:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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