The Northern Territory will soon come out of its two year COVID-19 public health emergency and enter the "next phase" of the pandemic response, Health Minister Natasha Fyles says.
In March 2020, the NT government declared an emergency across the whole of the territory to limit spread of coronavirus, a measure that was then extended periodically.
The move meant Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie was able to mandate self-quarantine for overseas travellers and restrict movement in remote Aboriginal communities.
However, Ms Fyles said the territory was now managing COVID-19 differently, which meant it was time to end the emergency phase.
"Now's the time for the territory to transition to the next phase," she said.
Emergency declaration extended, likely for last time
The NT has officially extended its public health emergency for an additional 90 days, but Ms Fyles says this is expected to be the final extension.
Ms Fyles said in the March parliamentary sittings the NT government would introduce a new bill to allow the CHO to manage the pandemic for the next two years.
Ms Fyles said this bill would allow for "transitional provisions" from the CHO.
"It will allow the chief health officer to have directions that we still may need to use, and some of these practical examples are to ensure people are vaccinated, to ensure isolation requirements for people who are positive to COVID," she said.
Ms Fyles said, under the bill, future measures could be introduced around the wearing of masks or limiting movement to remote communities.
Ms Fyles said without this new legislation, ceasing the public health emergency would renege all existing CHO directions, but the bill would allow "certain public measures to remain in place".
Dr Heggie described the next phase as an "exit strategy".
He also said, under the new law, he was required to publish a report on the coronavirus response every three months.
And Dr Heggie urged people to get vaccinated as soon as they could, which he said was the best way to protect against severe COVID-19 disease.
"We will have a long tail [of the COVID outbreak] … because there's quite a lot of people who are yet to be vaccinated," he said.
251 new cases of COVID-19
The NT government will soon stop using the Alice Springs quarantine facility for COVID-19 quarantine arrangements.
From May 11, 100 rooms previously reserved for people in need of quarantine will be available for tourists and travellers.
Ms Fyles said the Howard Springs quarantine facility would remain open for those who needed to use it.
The NT has today recorded 251 new cases of COVID-19, 223 of which came from positive rapid antigen tests (RATs).
Of the new cases, 170 were recorded in the Top End, 27 in Central Australia, 6 in East Arnhem, 12 in the Big Rivers region, 7 in the Barkly and 29 were still under investigation.
There are now 24 patients in hospital with four needing oxygen and two in intensive care.
Territory-wide, there are 1,604 active cases of the virus.
