Close to 100 people have taken the Northern Territory Health Minister to court, arguing the COVID-19 public health emergency "no longer exists", as the rolling average of new cases in the territory continues to rise.
The civil action brought by 97 people against Health Minister Natasha Fyles argues her decision to extend a public health emergency last month was unwarranted and infringed on people's rights.
The emergency declaration allows the Chief Health Officer to implement measures such as vaccine mandates and isolation requirements.
A group providing advice to some involved in the civil action, United NT Businesses, said coronavirus had not overwhelmed the health system and NT officials had acknowledged that the current dominant strain was mild.
"It leads to the complete subversion of our democratic process; it puts power into the hands of an unelected bureaucrat without any checks or balances," United NT Businesses spokesman Mario Tsirbas said.
Ms Fyles extended the emergency declaration for another three months while preparing new "transitional" legislation which will continue the Chief Health Officer's powers until 2024 without an emergency declaration.
"While the COVID-19 situation is currently improving, it can be expected from time to time that there may be outbreaks of COVID-19 in the community that present emergency-like scenarios in specific geographic locations or in groups of people that require a public health response," Ms Fyles said at the time.
In a lengthy pre-hearing conference today several cases were thrown out because the appellants failed to appear in court.
Hearings for the remaining cases could take weeks and are expected to be held later this year.
304 new cases, hospitalisations stable
The legal challenge comes as the NT recorded 304 new COVID-19 cases today, the lowest daily total in the past week.
However, the seven-day rolling average of new cases has again risen slightly to 415, as a suspected outbreak of the new BA.2 sub-variant saw case numbers jump to above 500 last week after reaching a low of below 200 earlier in March.
Ms Fyles last week warned that case numbers could rise as the more infectious sub-variant spread across the territory.
"We're certainly seeing that surge on the east coast … it could be that [the case increase in the NT] is around the corner, or it could be that the virus is behaving differently," she said last Tuesday.
The number of people with COVID-19 in territory hospitals has remained relatively stable, with 14 people receiving care as of today, including one on oxygen and one person in intensive care.
