Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Health Minister Natasha Fyles

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Katie Woolf spoke with Health Minister Natasha Fyles · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie wolf On mixed one oh four
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  Speaker 1: point nine thanks to Joyce Main Darwin.
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  Speaker 2: As we know, a repatriation flight is taken off from
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  Speaker 2: Turkey carrying about two hundred returning Australians. They are expected
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  Speaker 2: to touch down in Darwin last night at the RBAF base. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 2: a flight is expected to arrive from London today as
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  Speaker 2: I understand, they're going to be joining more than four
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  Speaker 2: hundred people already in quarantine at Howard Springs. So is
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  Speaker 2: this the most people that we've had at the facility at.
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  Speaker 1: Any one time.
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  Speaker 2: Well, joining me on the line is the Health Minister
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  Speaker 2: Attasha Files.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, minister.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.
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  Speaker 1: Minister.
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  Speaker 2: Did that flight arrive from Turkey last night and how
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  Speaker 2: many were on board?
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  Speaker 3: So Katie, yes, there was a flight that arrived last
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  Speaker 3: night from Turkey. I don't have the exact numbers, but
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  Speaker 3: we are expecting a flight again later today, this time
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  Speaker 3: from London and it has around one hundred and ninety
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  Speaker 3: five people on board. So each flight generally, Katie, has
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  Speaker 3: around that one eighty to two hundred people, but it
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  Speaker 3: does depends on that pre screening at the departure point.
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  Speaker 2: So obviously, as I understand that we have four hundred
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  Speaker 2: people already out there at Howard Springs, plus that Turkey
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  Speaker 2: flight and the London flight, is this going to be
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  Speaker 2: the most people that we've had at the facility at
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  Speaker 2: any one time.
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  Speaker 3: So, Katie, the latest figures i've got that there's around
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  Speaker 3: seven hundred and forty people in quarantine. That's the people
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  Speaker 3: from the repatriation flights, but it's also people coming in
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  Speaker 3: off the oil rigs and doing that work in the
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  Speaker 3: international seas they go into quarantine. We also have some
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  Speaker 3: of the Quanta's crew and pilots for example, some of
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  Speaker 3: the Air North a cruise and also the passengers that
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  Speaker 3: come in on those Air North flights from Billy, So
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  Speaker 3: they're not repatriation flights, but they're international flights where they
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  Speaker 3: go into to quarantine.
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  Speaker 2: So does that include the Turkey arrival last night and
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  Speaker 2: also that London flight today?
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  Speaker 3: So my understanding is that will include the London flight statistic,
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  Speaker 3: but it won't sorry the other way round. It will
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  Speaker 3: include that Issemble figure, but it won't include that the
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  Speaker 3: London figure. That's the figure that I've got this morning,
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  Speaker 3: seven hundred and forty people, Katie, It's not the most
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  Speaker 3: we've had in quarantine, but we're certainly you know, the
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  Speaker 3: facilities come together under one operation. Out there, people are
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  Speaker 3: kept separate. It's really important. There was some questions I
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  Speaker 3: had from community members about are they all mixing in there.
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  Speaker 3: They're very much kept separate within their flight but even
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  Speaker 3: within that, those groupings are kept separate so that you
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  Speaker 3: don't have any potential cross contamination.
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  Speaker 1: So is it the.
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  Speaker 2: Most international arrival so that we've had at the facility
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  Speaker 2: at any one time, because obviously those numbers were supposed
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  Speaker 2: to be ramping up from the end of May, Katie,
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  Speaker 2: I would have.
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  Speaker 3: To check that whether it's the most international arrivals. I
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  Speaker 3: don't think so. I think that before we saw that
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  Speaker 3: the drop off was because of the concerns coming from
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  Speaker 3: India and the changes to that. I think we had
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  Speaker 3: a slightly high figure that I'm happy to check that
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  Speaker 3: off there and get back.
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  Speaker 1: To you now.
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  Speaker 2: It is still going to be a test for us,
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  Speaker 2: There's no doubt about that, because as we know, the
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  Speaker 2: facility did change hands from the Ozmat team across to
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  Speaker 2: our Northern Territory Health team, and I know there's been
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  Speaker 2: plenty of discussion about testing out there also the PPE.
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  Speaker 2: Since the facility change hands from Ozmat to the Department
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  Speaker 2: of Health as the Minister for Health.
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  Speaker 1: Did you feel or why did you feel?
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  Speaker 2: I should say that it was necessary that those changes
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  Speaker 2: happened with the testing and also with the PPE.
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  Speaker 3: So, Katie, what we've seen at the facility of Howards Brings,
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  Speaker 3: and more broadly, the way we treat coronaviruses, we've seen
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  Speaker 3: changes all the way along. The highest standards of infection
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  Speaker 3: control are in place and they will continue, but we'll
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  Speaker 3: be as we're agile. As we learn more about the virus,
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  Speaker 3: you will see changes from time to time. But it's
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  Speaker 3: really important for the community to understand we've come together
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  Speaker 3: under one operation. But many of those people, in fact,
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  Speaker 3: the nurses that had been working for OZMAT have gone
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  Speaker 3: across and will work up for another few weeks under
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  Speaker 3: the territory operation. So there's been a number of measures
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  Speaker 3: to make sure that we've got that continuation of all
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  Speaker 3: those practices.
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  Speaker 1: So why was there.
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  Speaker 2: The change to the PPE, Because I know that at
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  Speaker 2: one point late last week there was bus drivers who
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  Speaker 2: were refusing to drive until they had their the PPE
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  Speaker 2: that they had previously had.
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  Speaker 3: So the policy around PPE is guide to buy infection
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  Speaker 3: control those national standards from HPPC and it adheres to
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  Speaker 3: that highest staty standard. There has been evolution of that
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  Speaker 3: PPE and the practices in KD. I've spoken to people, nurses, clinicians,
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  Speaker 3: you know that not only operating within quarantine but also
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  Speaker 3: other medical environments and there's different ways to use the
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  Speaker 3: PPE and we're always looking at making sure we've got
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  Speaker 3: the highest standard in place.
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  Speaker 2: So you're confident with what is going on out there
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  Speaker 2: and you don't feel as though any of those changes
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  Speaker 2: are going to have an impact to the wider community.
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  Speaker 3: So Katie's mandatory that all staff wear full PPE whenever
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  Speaker 3: they come in contact with quarantining arrivals and or if
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  Speaker 3: it's not practical to maintain one and a half meters.
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  Speaker 1: So I am.
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  Speaker 3: Confident in the practices, but I will continue to make
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  Speaker 3: sure that they are held to the highest standards, that
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  Speaker 3: any changes are rigorously tested based on those national standards,
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  Speaker 3: based on the latest advice out of HPPC. Very much.
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  Speaker 3: So that's certainly my job as the Minister for National Resilience.
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  Speaker 2: Can I just ask how many current cases do we
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  Speaker 2: have at the moment, how many active cases.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, I don't have that figure. Before me we had,
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  Speaker 3: my understanding was that we just had a couple of people.
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  Speaker 3: So in the transition to one facility, OZMAC cared for
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  Speaker 3: all of the people that were under its care. It
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  Speaker 3: cared them out, so to speak. So we had around
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  Speaker 3: fifty just a few weeks back. The large majority of
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  Speaker 3: those recovered. There was just a couple left on the
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  Speaker 3: weekend under the former Ozmat banner that were being cared
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  Speaker 3: for as infected. And then in the transition to one facility,
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  Speaker 3: people that I became positive were being cared for under
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  Speaker 3: that new system. And so I don't have the specific
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  Speaker 3: number on how many are COVID positive right now in
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  Speaker 3: the territory. But that's just to explain what happened in
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  Speaker 3: the transition for your listeners. I can't those couple of
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  Speaker 3: people we're hoping recover in the know over the next
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  Speaker 3: couple of days.
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  Speaker 2: Or I'm just having a look on the coronavirus website
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  Speaker 2: it says that there are six to the meeting. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I was going to say there's six total active cases
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  Speaker 2: on there at the moment, but I anticipate or I'm
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  Speaker 2: assuming that you're potentially anticipating as other staff out there
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  Speaker 2: that as those additional flights arrived, that we may well
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  Speaker 2: see some additional cases.
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  Speaker 3: So that six would be there's definitely a couple of marines.
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  Speaker 3: There was a couple on the weekends that were under
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  Speaker 3: the former of was Matt India flights. Yes, we see
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  Speaker 3: one to two percent infectivity off these flights. That's why
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  Speaker 3: these people are going into quarantine. But we've got those
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  Speaker 3: measures in place if we're to see that large spike,
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  Speaker 3: and it was reassuring to see the India flight coming
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  Speaker 3: on the weekend and see that. You know that those
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  Speaker 3: measures that were put in place at the front end
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  Speaker 3: at the departure point seem tour work. So we need
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  Speaker 3: to keep working with DEFAT and the Commonwealth to protect
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  Speaker 3: ourselves as much as we can.
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  Speaker 1: Now, Minister.
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  Speaker 2: Last week it was reported by the abcne Use that
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  Speaker 2: questions are being asked why the new medical director out
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  Speaker 2: there at Howard Springstee Stevens received passengers from the India
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  Speaker 2: repatriation flight last Saturday and then went to work at
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  Speaker 2: a music festival.
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  Speaker 1: Later that day. Do you think that that's appropriate?
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  Speaker 3: So, Katie, I understand that that took place, and I
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  Speaker 3: understand that there was an investigation and that no infection
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  Speaker 3: control breaches were found. So I think that we do
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  Speaker 3: need to consider, when you know, people are working at
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  Speaker 3: the Howard Springs location, even the perception of going out
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  Speaker 3: into the community like that to reassure territorians there was
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  Speaker 3: no threat to the community. But I can understand that
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  Speaker 3: the concern and I've raised that with my team so
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  Speaker 3: that we can going forward as we manage this facility
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  Speaker 3: for the longer term under the banner of territory health,
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  Speaker 3: that we meet everyone's expectation.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, is it something that you would do.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, it's a difficult one and it's off in hindsight,
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  Speaker 3: is an easy thing to look back and go that
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  Speaker 3: just just didn't make sense. But I think that you know,
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  Speaker 3: we're talking about someone that's very hard working. They've been
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  Speaker 3: involved in, you know, all of the flights originally from
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  Speaker 3: Wuhan and Diamond Princess, as well as providing that support
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  Speaker 3: to our community, which we see that as Matt team do.
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  Speaker 3: So I think hindsight it is easy to pick it
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  Speaker 3: out and point it out, but going forward will make
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  Speaker 3: sure that those teams that are intricately involved in managing
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  Speaker 3: the Howards Brings operation that they're you know, the community
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  Speaker 3: feels is comfortable with the events that they're attending outside
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  Speaker 3: of that.
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  Speaker 2: All right, minister, are you able to give us the
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  Speaker 2: latest with the requirements from those who've been in Melbourne
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  Speaker 2: at this point in time?
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  Speaker 3: So, Katie, we're watching Victoria very very closely now. I
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  Speaker 3: think Chief Health Officer last night declared quarantine and testing
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  Speaker 3: directions for people who have been to a number of
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  Speaker 3: those public exposure sites, so where we've seen those in
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  Speaker 3: our four cases just before I came on air. There
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  Speaker 3: is a number of peers to these, Katie, it's a
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  Speaker 3: little bit confusing. This is Matt what Victoria has done.
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  Speaker 3: But people should head to the Coronavirus dot NT dot
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  Speaker 3: gov dot AU website if they've been in Victoria recently.
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  Speaker 3: That's the easiest piece of advice, and anyone that's in
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  Speaker 3: Victoria and planning to come home should also visit there
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  Speaker 3: because this relates to our site from the sixteenth of May.
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  Speaker 3: So going back to early last week.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Minister, we appreciate your time this morning and welcome back.
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  Speaker 2: We're really pleased to hear that your son went well
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  Speaker 2: with his operation and surgery in Queensland as well, and
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  Speaker 2: we're glad to have you back.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Wi. It's certainly great to be home, very wonderful
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  Speaker 3: to be back and enjoying this beautiful drive season weather.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for your time and well, hopefully we'll have
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  Speaker 2: you back Friday.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see how we go for the week that was.
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  Speaker 3: I'm out of the habit now, I'm sure i'll get
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: back into it pretty quickly.
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  Speaker 2: All right, thank you, we'll catch up with you very soon.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: That is the Health Minister there, Natasha Phile