Travel Ban Imposed to Curb Covid Cases in Indigenous Australians

(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s government has banned travel to or from a remote region of the Northern Territory in a bid to help curb the spread of a Covid-19 outbreak among First Nations people in the area. 

The Northern Territory on Tuesday reported nine new cases -- all in Indigenous people. That took a cluster linked to the regional center of Katherine, 200 miles from the capital Darwin, and the isolated Robinson River settlement to 11. 

While Indigenous Australians make up about 3% of the nation’s entire population, that proportion soars in Outback regions that in recent months have been exposed to the virus for the first time since the pandemic began. These rural communities are particularly vulnerable because of higher rates of underlying health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

High inoculation rates in major cities have allowed Sydney and Melbourne to remove restrictions and learn to live with the virus. Still, officials in the Northern Territory are grappling with how to reopen to the rest of the country; only 59% of people aged 16 or over living in remote communities are fully vaccinated, health data show, compared with an 81% inoculation rate for all areas. 

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People will now only be able to come or go from the Robinson River area and its surrounds for essential purposes, Health Minister Greg Hunt said in a statement. The ban will be in place until at least 6pm on Thursday.

“These measures will help to prevent and contain the current Covid-19 outbreak in the Robinson River, and will assist in preventing the emergence, establishment and spread of the disease to neighboring remote communities in the Northern Territory,” Hunt said. 

The territory’s government has also imposed a lockdown for the broader Katherine area until Monday, as well as a territory-wide mask mandate.

“This is obviously a serious escalation in the Covid-19 situation in the Northern Territory,” Chief Minister Michael Gunner said on Tuesday, state broadcaster the ABC reported.

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