Navi Brar is juggling working full-time as a beauty therapist and looking after two young kids, both out of her home in Alice Springs.
Her youngest, three-year-old son Sumer, attended day-care full-time last year but hasn't been back since the Christmas break.
Ms Brar isn't sending him back — yet — because she's worried about the spread of COVID-19 in her town.
"I kept him home just to be safe and I just want to see which direction it's going," she said.
"I do worry about him as well because he's just three and he doesn't have any vaccinations or anything just yet."
Cases in the territory have been steadily growing since its borders opened in December.
Alice Springs, where the Brar family has lived for six years, is now part-way through a seven-day lockout: a restriction introduced as hospitalisations in the town grew along with "high-risk" clusters.
"There are so many cases coming positive every day, there are so many people now, even the people I know, they are getting positive," Ms Brar said.
And Ms Brar is not the only one choosing to keep her children home.
Ruth Wilson, centre manager of the Ampe Kenhe Apmere Congress Childcare in Alice Springs, says there are about 10 families from their centre who have chosen not to return just yet.
"That's not because they don't have faith in the processes that we have in place, they are just worried," Ms Wilson said.
"Now that it's in the community, it's very real and we're all sharing a bit of fear now that it's on our doorstep."
Staff numbers hit by COVID-19
Shortly before the start of the 2022 intake, Ms Wilson learned four of her staff had tested positive to COVID-19 while others were still on leave.
"I opened our doors this year eight staff down, so it was very, very stressful to negotiate which families would be returning, which ratios we'd be looking at," she said.
In that first week, Ms Wilson was working 13-hour days, filling in for kitchen staff and going grocery shopping before work as her cook was also off.
"The whole team pulled together, everyone was tired," she said.
Ms Wilson said the centre now required staff or families returning from holidays to return a negative rapid antigen test (RAT) before they were allowed back.
The impact is being felt across the Northern Territory.
Dripstone Children's Centre, in Darwin's northern suburbs, lost six staff a day during the first week of 2022 due to COVID-19 cases and self-isolation requirements.
Director Shauna Doherty said they were able to bring staff out of the office and into the playground to cover the shortage and now "things have settled" and they're back at capacity for kids and staff.
Ms Doherty said some of their students had complex health conditions, and parents had opted to keep them at home and minimise their risk.
Call for free RATs for childcare centres
David Reynolds Suter, from the Arnhem Early Learning Centre in Nhulunbuy, wants the Commonwealth or NT government to provide cheap or free rapid antigen tests (RATs) for childcare workers and the kids they look after.
"Getting [a RAT] as you walk in the door or as you start work would be the best way at the moment to control it in any business that's out there which has to deal with people," he said.
Mr Reynolds Suter said he'd been trying to source RATs in his community, but they had been growing scarcer and more expensive.
"The local Woolworths has RATs which are seven for $70, so if you do the calculations, you're looking at $800 dollars or so a day, five days a week, making it totally impractical," he said.
Ms Doherty, who had also struggled to buy RATs in Darwin stores, also wanted the government to provide free kits to childcare centres.
On Thursday, following a meeting with national cabinet, Prime Minister Scott Morrison indicated that if states or territories put testing systems for childcare centres in place, they would receive federal financial support.
"Where surveillance testing is elected … including for early childhood education and childcare centres, the government will be supporting that 50-50 through the national partnership agreement," Mr Morrison said.
An NT government spokesman said the territory had a "sufficient supply" of RATs which could be collected at distribution points in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy.
"Childcare workers who are seeking free rapid antigen tests are encouraged to contact NT Health so their requests can be considered," he said.
Mr Reynolds Suter said some parents had asked the centre to provide daily testing for their children, and they'd been doing a financial study of what might be possible to keep youngsters safe.
But if the centre had to bear the cost itself, Mr Reynolds Suter warned it could lead to a price hike.
"I can't see [childcare cost increases] not happening to cover this, I do believe into the future there's going to be something," he said.
"Certainly, I am worried, all the staff are worried."
