CANBERRA, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been called in to help contain the COVID-19 outbreak among Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory (NT).
The NT government on Monday reported two locally-acquired COVID-19 infections, taking the number of cases linked to the current outbreak to 37.
Both of the new cases were in the remote town of Katherine where the outbreak began before spreading to the Indigenous communities of Robinson River and Binjari.
Michael Gunner, the chief minister of the NT, on Monday announced that Robinson River, where no new cases were found, will move from a lockdown to a lockout whereby strict restrictions will stay in place only for the unvaccinated.
Under a lockout, fully vaccinated residents are able to live normally within the lockout area. Everyone must wear a mask outside of their place of residence and travel is not permitted outside of the lockout area.
"Robinson River has shown all Territorians how a lockdown can be done and won in a remote community -- a highly vaccinated community, a high rate of testing and responding rapidly to an outbreak," he told reporters.
On Sunday he announced that ADF personnel would be deployed in the NT to assist with the outbreak after nine cases were reported in Binjari on the outskirts of Katherine.
On Monday morning, there were more than 1,200 new locally-acquired cases and four deaths reported across Australia as the country continues to battle the third wave of COVID-19 infections.
The majority of new cases were in Victoria, the country's second-most populous state with Melbourne as the capital city, where 1,029 new cases and three deaths were reported.
So far about 91.5 percent of Australians aged 16 and over had received one vaccine dose and 85.1 percent were fully inoculated, according to the latest data released by the Department of Health. Enditem
