The Northern Territory government is under fire after a group of people taken into quarantine 10 days ago from a remote Aboriginal community were sent home on Sunday “unexpectedly” and subsequently tested positive for Covid-19.
The remote central Australian community of Yuendumu has asked NT Health to explain why the community members – who had been evacuated to the Alice Springs quarantine facility as close contacts – were flown home on 16 January and sent back to their homes without being tested on arrival, with local authorities saying they had not been informed of their return. A number of the group were Covid-positive when later tested by local health workers in the following two days.
“The people got off the plane and were able to go to their respective homes, and then tested positive once the emergency response team realised they were here,” Johanna Ward, the CEO of the Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation (WYDAC), said.
“There were a number of people who were positive. We haven’t been provided with that number. So the community is very angry.”
Ward said relations with the government were already fraught, with Yuendumu residents angry at what they see as being blamed for a relatively low vaccination rate. Last week, the NT deputy health minister, Nicole Manison, described the township’s vaccination rate of 65% first vaccination and 41% double vaccination for people over 16 as “disappointing”.
Ward said the unexpected return flight had clearly contributed to the rapid rise in Covid cases in the community, and would like an explanation and an apology from the NT health minister, Natasha Fyles.
“Given the circumstances and the relationship today between Yuendumu community being in some way blamed for not taking up vaccination adequately to combat Covid hitting here, the community are now saying, ‘We’ve been blamed for it, but now you have brought back people who are positive and infected us’.
“So yes, they would like an apology, but also to be confident that it can’t happen again to us or any other community. From a systemic perspective, what’s going to prevent this from happening to another community?”
According to the minutes of a meeting of the Yuendumu local emergency management Covid response group held on Tuesday, local police and health authorities were not told about the return flight.
The emergency response group includes NT police, local health workers, leading community groups, education officials as well as representatives of NT Health and the National Indigenous Australians Agency, which advises the federal minister, Ken Wyatt.
The minutes, seen by Guardian Australia, said the residents returned “unexpectedly”.
“Health and police were not advised prior to their arrival, [there was] no prior information on the number of people and opportunity to plan where they were to stay,” the minutes said.
The response group requested that it be given “information from health on the protocols for residents to return from quarantine. Residents should be testing before arriving back to community.”
Fyles has been contacted for comment, to clarify what the return protocols are, and to clarify the circumstances of the flight but had not responded before deadline.
Ward said the “stuff up” was one of several reasons the community was concerned the current health department strategy for “living with Covid” was not working.
“The support that’s being provided, and the model being used, is not effective in a remote setting,” she said.
“For example, people have been advised or told to isolate in their home – and they may be sharing that home with up to 20 people. At one stage, one of the quarantining homes had 23 residents. And these residents, these homes, only have one bathroom and one toilet.
“We need communication about what regime we are under, we need communication with people at a senior enough level who have some authority when they’re providing information, not the people who are on the ground, who are all working hard, doing a great job, trying to deliver.
“People here aren’t vulnerable, they’re neglected.”
Minutes of the Tuesday emergency response group meeting also said the NT government’s current strategy is not working.
“It appears that the outbreak cannot be contained by using the tools (targeted testing) and practices (quarantine/lockout/living with Covid) in place. An approach that is not working for the community and more fit for an urban mainstream environment.
“Need to have an honest and transparency [sic] that it is not working and because of that it is placing everyone at risk. Futile to keep supporting an urban model.”
Questions were also raised at the meeting about managing the imminent return to school of Yuendumu children, amid concerns about a shortage of rapid antigen tests for teachers and students.
