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: But let's get straight into it because the Health Minister,
0:02
Speaker 1: Natasha Files is on the line.
0:04
Speaker 2: Good morning to you, minister.
0:06
Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners.
0:08
Speaker 2: Minister.
0:09
Speaker 1: Do we know at this point in time this morning
0:11
Speaker 1: if we have any additional COVID cases?
0:15
Speaker 3: So, Katie, we don't have any more confirmed positive cases
0:18
Speaker 3: of COVID, but it is very early and that is
0:21
Speaker 3: why we announced a three day lockdown so that we
0:24
Speaker 3: could stop everybody isolate as many territories as possible and
0:27
Speaker 3: work through what the situation is before us.
0:31
Speaker 1: Now, do we have any idea at this point in
0:34
Speaker 1: time exactly how many close contacts there are?
0:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, Katie, So we have around three hundred contacts and
0:41
Speaker 3: we believe around sixty five of those people have been
0:44
Speaker 3: identified as close contacts, and we've been in touch with
0:47
Speaker 3: a large majority of those people. And part of the
0:50
Speaker 3: reason why we're in a lockdown is whilst we're getting
0:53
Speaker 3: in touch with those remaining few people, we know that
0:56
Speaker 3: everybody should be in isolation, they should be wearing a
0:58
Speaker 3: mask if they do go out for those essential reasons.
1:01
Speaker 3: So we have been in touch with, as I said,
1:04
Speaker 3: a large number we are organizing their testing. So this
1:07
Speaker 3: is an important message for your listeners. If they believe
1:10
Speaker 3: that there are close or casual contacts, and those sites
1:13
Speaker 3: are listed on the Anti Coronavirus website, they did change
1:17
Speaker 3: yesterday as we were able to do more contact tracing information.
1:22
Speaker 3: So people should keep familiarizing themselves with those sites. But
1:25
Speaker 3: if they believe they are close or casual contacts, they
1:27
Speaker 3: should call the COVID hotline and we will organize testing
1:30
Speaker 3: and we will tell them what to do next. There's
1:32
Speaker 3: no need for them to panic, there's no need for
1:34
Speaker 3: them to leave their home. Just stay safe and we
1:37
Speaker 3: will work with them.
1:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right.
1:39
Speaker 1: There is definitely a few more places listed on there,
1:42
Speaker 1: and some of those locations have changed somewhat, so I'll
1:46
Speaker 1: take our listeners through those a little bit later this
1:48
Speaker 1: morning so that they're aware of exactly you know, the
1:51
Speaker 1: locations and also the times Minister in relation to the
1:56
Speaker 1: testing clinic. I understand the Marara testing clinic was stood
1:58
Speaker 1: up this morning at about eight am.
2:00
Speaker 2: Has it been very busy out there yet so.
2:04
Speaker 3: Katie, I've just come from the Marara testing site. We
2:07
Speaker 3: are trialing or put in place a new system. Previously
2:10
Speaker 3: you had to book what we have done this time
2:12
Speaker 3: is you don't have to make a booking, but we
2:14
Speaker 3: urge people not to just get tested for the sake
2:17
Speaker 3: of it. It's not for the worried. Well. It is
2:19
Speaker 3: only for people who've been deemed a close or casual
2:21
Speaker 3: contact or if you have blue cold like symptoms those
2:25
Speaker 3: COVID system symptoms. Sorry, it has been very calm out
2:29
Speaker 3: there this morning, but people should be prepared. If they
2:31
Speaker 3: are feeling symptomatic and they had out to get tested,
2:34
Speaker 3: they may have to wait and they should be prepared
2:36
Speaker 3: for that.
2:37
Speaker 1: Now, what about Catherine, because obviously Catherine's never been in
2:40
Speaker 1: this situation before. Do they actually have a testing clinic?
2:43
Speaker 1: And what is the situation for our listeners in Catherine
2:46
Speaker 1: who may be concerned that they're either close or casual contacts.
2:51
Speaker 3: So the Catherine region is also in lockdown as we know,
2:55
Speaker 3: and you have listeners there. We're doing two things. We've
2:58
Speaker 3: stood up extra testing resources and we have also provided
3:03
Speaker 3: additional vaccine. So there's a pop up vaccine clinic which
3:06
Speaker 3: will open. People do need to make bookings for the
3:09
Speaker 3: vaccine clinic, but not to be tested. So important information
3:12
Speaker 3: for Catherine residents.
3:14
Speaker 1: So has sorry, so has that testing clinics, so it's
3:17
Speaker 1: not open jen or it is about to be stood up.
3:20
Speaker 3: Sorry. Testing additional testing resources have been stood up in
3:24
Speaker 3: cast and they were stood up and with the Catherine
3:27
Speaker 3: situation because we know the individual is infectious, we believe
3:30
Speaker 3: in the community Sunday afternoon, the testing is important from
3:34
Speaker 3: today because it is that incubation period and so someone
3:39
Speaker 3: might have got tested yesterday and that would be a
3:41
Speaker 3: false negative test and so that's why the testing for
3:45
Speaker 3: Catherine is really important from today. So there's extra testing
3:47
Speaker 3: going into Catherine and extra vaccine.
3:49
Speaker 1: And Minister, are you testing the wastewater well both in
3:53
Speaker 1: Darwin and also in Catherine and has there been any
3:56
Speaker 1: results so far?
3:59
Speaker 3: Will continue. We need to test the wastewater in Darwin
4:01
Speaker 3: and we have added Catherine wastewater. We won't have those results,
4:04
Speaker 3: I understand from our Chief Health Office un til later
4:06
Speaker 3: in the week, but they're important as a part of
4:08
Speaker 3: the surveillance. So right now people just need to stay
4:12
Speaker 3: at home as much as possible to remove those interactions
4:15
Speaker 3: because we don't want them to later on find out
4:17
Speaker 3: that they are infectious or we're a close contact. To
4:20
Speaker 3: stay at home if you are symptomatic or a contact
4:23
Speaker 3: get tested. Now it's the chance to get vaccinated Katie.
4:27
Speaker 3: As I said, additional appointments for Darwin and Catherine and
4:30
Speaker 3: we will be doing that surveillance wastewater testing that those
4:33
Speaker 3: results will come through later in the week.
4:34
Speaker 1: Now when are we expecting the update from the Chief
4:37
Speaker 1: Minister and the Chief Health Officer today?
4:41
Speaker 3: So later in the day, Katie, after I speak with you,
4:43
Speaker 3: we'll head into another SEMSI that sub Emergency Cabinet group
4:47
Speaker 3: and we'll be updated fully on all the information from Health.
4:50
Speaker 3: But it's very early on in this lockdown we had.
4:54
Speaker 3: Health did an amazing job over the last twenty four hours.
4:56
Speaker 3: They had three thousand calls to that COVID hotline and
5:00
Speaker 3: they were able to return pretty much all of those
5:02
Speaker 3: calls except for a couple. So if you do need
5:05
Speaker 3: to ring the hotline, just leave your callback details, remain patient.
5:08
Speaker 3: It's open twenty four hours. So that's the clear message.
5:11
Speaker 3: If we can just have patients from Territorians please.
5:14
Speaker 1: Now, we saw yesterday morning, you know, the rumor mills
5:17
Speaker 1: started to run rife. I guess you'd say quite early on,
5:21
Speaker 1: and we saw a lot of Territorians heading out to
5:24
Speaker 1: those various supermarkets. They seem to be aware that we
5:27
Speaker 1: were looking like we were heading into a lockdown sooner
5:29
Speaker 1: than the official word came out. But why was there
5:33
Speaker 1: not more warning time? You know, why did that official
5:36
Speaker 1: announcement not happen until sort of ten thirty and then
5:40
Speaker 1: we're going into lockdown at midday.
5:43
Speaker 3: So, Katie, we don't want people to suddenly when they
5:46
Speaker 3: hear that a lockdown's coming, run out and do everything.
5:49
Speaker 3: The whole point of a lockdown is to make it quickly,
5:51
Speaker 3: to make sure that people are minimizing the interactions with
5:54
Speaker 3: other people. There's no need to panic. Willis is still open,
5:57
Speaker 3: you can still go to the chemist, you know, all
5:59
Speaker 3: those essential you can still access. And so we certainly
6:03
Speaker 3: did see a number of rumors and messages. We were
6:06
Speaker 3: in that cabinet meeting with our health officials and the
6:09
Speaker 3: territory Controller, and then the Chief Minister stepped out within
6:12
Speaker 3: half an hour or less of that being finalized. So
6:17
Speaker 3: it doesn't in terms of territorians, we want to restrict
6:20
Speaker 3: those interactions and people don't need to worry that they
6:23
Speaker 3: might not be able to access something. Those essential goods
6:26
Speaker 3: and services.
6:27
Speaker 1: Are still available now, We asked the Chief Minister yesterday
6:29
Speaker 1: on the show whether the individual who obviously has traveled
6:33
Speaker 1: to the Northern Territory and willingly carried with him COVID,
6:38
Speaker 1: whether he had been vaccinated. The Chief Minister had said
6:41
Speaker 1: that was the one thing that he hadn't been open
6:44
Speaker 1: and cooperative about. Do we have any idea now this
6:47
Speaker 1: morning if this individual was vaccinated or.
6:49
Speaker 3: Not, So, Katie, I don't have further information, and as
6:53
Speaker 3: I said, we'll be going into further briefings after I
6:55
Speaker 3: speak with you. We do need to respect the privacy
6:58
Speaker 3: of this individual. So this is these are difficult when
7:01
Speaker 3: you talk about COVID cases. I remember earlier on we
7:03
Speaker 3: have to provide a level of information to share with
7:06
Speaker 3: the community. But you know, it's no different to someone
7:09
Speaker 3: being diagnosed with the floor or and other illness, and
7:11
Speaker 3: so we'll continue to work with the individual around as
7:13
Speaker 3: much information. But the important information is the contacts and
7:17
Speaker 3: those close and casual contacts, which you'll listed on our website,
7:20
Speaker 3: and anyone else that's symptomatic or feeling unwell should get
7:23
Speaker 3: a test.
7:24
Speaker 2: All right.
7:24
Speaker 1: There's a few people messaging through about the impact on business,
7:27
Speaker 1: so I do want to ask you firstly, though, The
7:29
Speaker 1: Notts Crossing owner, Ian Pace has told the Northern Territory
7:33
Speaker 1: News that he understood the pandemic was an ever changing
7:36
Speaker 1: situation for health authorities, but questioned why the man was
7:39
Speaker 1: allowed to leave Darwin. He's told the paper, why was
7:43
Speaker 1: a person who had a test allowed to leave and
7:46
Speaker 1: go out in the community. He went on to say,
7:49
Speaker 1: when was the result known and why didn't anyone recall him?
7:53
Speaker 1: How did this happen or why did this happen? Do
7:55
Speaker 1: you think that it is appropriate that he was able
7:57
Speaker 1: to travel?
7:59
Speaker 3: So, Katie, when travelers exit hotel quarantine, they do so
8:03
Speaker 3: with the negative test, and this individual has followed all
8:05
Speaker 3: the rules. Here in the territory. We have what's called
8:07
Speaker 3: a day seventeen test, so three days after any quarantine,
8:11
Speaker 3: an individual has to take another tests. We don't have
8:13
Speaker 3: the clinical grounds to detain them, but it does provide
8:17
Speaker 3: us with additional information. So this individual was tested around
8:20
Speaker 3: nine am on Sunday morning. We had that preliminary result
8:23
Speaker 3: and it was worked through the Sunday night. If we
8:26
Speaker 3: hadn't done that day seventeen test, we wouldn't be aware
8:29
Speaker 3: that this person is infectious. I understand their asymptomatic, so
8:32
Speaker 3: they wouldn't have had any symptoms and they would be
8:34
Speaker 3: potentially moving further around our community. So I can understand
8:38
Speaker 3: the frustration where people say, but we don't have that
8:40
Speaker 3: ability to detain someone longer than the fourteen days mandatory quarantine.
8:44
Speaker 1: Well, do we maybe need to look at changing it
8:46
Speaker 1: because the reality is now that you know we've got
8:49
Speaker 1: well thousands of thousands of Territorians in lockdown, business is closed.
8:53
Speaker 2: Do we maybe need.
8:54
Speaker 1: To take a look at doing things differently if we
8:57
Speaker 1: are talking about those international arrivals and like you said,
9:00
Speaker 1: it was a positive case from that day seventeen test.
9:04
Speaker 1: But now as we're saying the territory, well, certainly Darwin
9:08
Speaker 1: and Catherine are in lockdown as a result. So do
9:11
Speaker 1: we as a state need to look at things a
9:13
Speaker 1: bit differently?
9:15
Speaker 3: So, Katie, we can't lock people up who have tested negative,
9:17
Speaker 3: and this individual had tested negative two days earlier. So
9:21
Speaker 3: but what we can do is that extra testing, and
9:23
Speaker 3: without that extra testing, we wouldn't have caught this case,
9:26
Speaker 3: and as I just mentioned, you know, potentially would have
9:28
Speaker 3: been moving about our community. So it is difficult, but
9:31
Speaker 3: we can't detain people unnecessarily unfortunately.
9:34
Speaker 1: But with those international arrivals, do we maybe need to
9:37
Speaker 1: look at extending that quarantine time, does it maybe need
9:40
Speaker 1: to be longer than fourteen days? Or are we thinking
9:43
Speaker 1: with this case you know that he's picked it up
9:46
Speaker 1: at the airport, or you know, what are we thinking
9:48
Speaker 1: and how can we do things differently so we minimize
9:51
Speaker 1: the risk of going through this again.
9:54
Speaker 3: So Katie, of course, with any incident there's a review
9:56
Speaker 3: and we certainly would put in place any health measures.
9:59
Speaker 3: But positive case two days earlier had returned negative. Of course,
10:04
Speaker 3: you know, I have sympathy for territories, particularly business owners.
10:08
Speaker 3: But the man at the center of this, he didn't
10:09
Speaker 3: breach any COVID directions and he's seen nothing but cooperative
10:13
Speaker 3: and compliant from our perspective. So this is COVID. It
10:16
Speaker 3: is this new delta strain. But as I said, he
10:19
Speaker 3: had tested negative. We're now working through exactly where he
10:23
Speaker 3: has picked this virus up from. Was that you know,
10:25
Speaker 3: clearly it looks like it was at some point before
10:28
Speaker 3: he arrived into the territory, and we're working through that
10:30
Speaker 3: with our health officials.
10:31
Speaker 1: So we still don't know exactly how the person got infected.
10:36
Speaker 3: No, so that's what's being worked through. His test has
10:38
Speaker 3: been sent into State for that genomic sequencing and to verify.
10:41
Speaker 3: We're treating it as the highly contagious delta strain, but
10:44
Speaker 3: we're sent that away for that further testing.
10:47
Speaker 1: Now, is there any update at the moment on the
10:49
Speaker 1: capacity at Royal Darwin Hospital because we know that there
10:52
Speaker 1: was obviously that recent code yellow, So is there any
10:56
Speaker 1: update on the capacity there given the fact that now
10:58
Speaker 1: we have the situation that in when it comes to COVID.
11:02
Speaker 3: So I think there's two parts, Katie. If we were
11:04
Speaker 3: to start to see spread of COVID within our community
11:06
Speaker 3: and we started to see people needing hospital care, we
11:09
Speaker 3: would enact a number of contingency plans that we have
11:12
Speaker 3: in place, and of course you know the steps before
11:16
Speaker 3: that are happening at Royal Zowon and Palmerston Hospital in
11:19
Speaker 3: case we do see people start to become unwealth. In
11:22
Speaker 3: terms of the hospital, it is extremely busy, Katie. I
11:25
Speaker 3: have checked in it again with Health and it's mainly
11:28
Speaker 3: around mental health patients and as we know, we've put
11:31
Speaker 3: in a significant investment and there's things happening in that space.
11:33
Speaker 3: People should not go and seek medical you know, they
11:37
Speaker 3: shouldn't avoid going and seeking medical care if they're unwell.
11:40
Speaker 3: But we do ask Territorians to think about if you're unwell,
11:43
Speaker 3: can you perhaps you know, use a Health Direct telephone?
11:46
Speaker 3: Can you reach out to your GP. GP services are
11:48
Speaker 3: available as our emergency dental surgery. So we do ask
11:52
Speaker 3: people as always to be considerate around why they perhaps
11:55
Speaker 3: would attend emergency.
11:57
Speaker 1: All right, we did have a well else work at
12:00
Speaker 1: get in contact with us yesterday and say that there
12:03
Speaker 1: is still quite a strain on the system at Royal
12:05
Speaker 1: Dale and Hospital over the weekend. Are we close to
12:09
Speaker 1: being on that code yellow line again?
12:12
Speaker 3: So code yellow what that does is an act to
12:14
Speaker 3: number of systems within the hospital and we had a
12:18
Speaker 3: peak demand in the days leading up to that code
12:20
Speaker 3: yellow being called. As I just said, the hospital is
12:23
Speaker 3: extremely busy. It's one of the busiest hospitals and in
12:25
Speaker 3: the magency departments in the country. We're putting in place
12:28
Speaker 3: longer term plans around how we can reduce particularly around
12:31
Speaker 3: that mental health, providing better care to the most vulnerable
12:34
Speaker 3: in our community and also easing those pressures within our hospital.
12:38
Speaker 2: So are we back there again?
12:41
Speaker 3: So, Katie, we're not at a code yellow. We'd be
12:42
Speaker 3: very upfront and put out a media statement if we
12:45
Speaker 3: did have code yellow. But yes, the hospital is very busy.
12:48
Speaker 3: The hospital has been busy for a considerable period and
12:51
Speaker 3: there's a broad range of reasons why the hospital is
12:55
Speaker 3: so busy, and we keep working to make sure that
12:57
Speaker 3: we can reduce that pressure, and we acknowledge the work
13:00
Speaker 3: of our health staff well.
13:01
Speaker 2: And I know the mental health speeds.
13:03
Speaker 1: It's something that you and I have spoken about previously,
13:05
Speaker 1: so we might actually catch up with you at another
13:07
Speaker 1: time on that and just get a bit of an
13:09
Speaker 1: update in that space. But are you able to tell
13:12
Speaker 1: us is the renal ward at Palmerston Hospital operational again?
13:17
Speaker 3: So, Katie, that was about ten days ago that we
13:20
Speaker 3: had the incident at the renal ward which required patients
13:24
Speaker 3: to receive care. I understand at the time they advised
13:26
Speaker 3: me it would be about two weeks to have those
13:28
Speaker 3: issues rectified before we could deliver renal services back at
13:31
Speaker 3: Palmerston And so those people are being cared for across
13:34
Speaker 3: our other facilities in the top end and when those
13:37
Speaker 3: rexiplications are made they can resume services at Palmston Regional Hospital.
13:41
Speaker 1: So it sounds as though that would obviously isn't operating
13:44
Speaker 1: at the moment.
13:46
Speaker 3: I haven't had an update within the last couple of days,
13:48
Speaker 3: but my understanding is that we should see that come
13:50
Speaker 3: back online towards the end of this week, and I'm
13:52
Speaker 3: happy to seek further information.
13:54
Speaker 1: I mean, are you concerned at the moment, like you said,
13:56
Speaker 1: obviously we are.
13:58
Speaker 2: You know, we are all in lockdown.
14:00
Speaker 1: We thankfully at this point in time, seem to have
14:02
Speaker 1: things under control with that lockdown when it comes to COVID.
14:06
Speaker 2: But is it a bit of a worry.
14:07
Speaker 1: There seems to be quite a strain by the sounds
14:10
Speaker 1: of it on Royal dal And Hospital. We've also got
14:13
Speaker 1: a ward that's not operational at the moment at the
14:16
Speaker 1: Palmerston Hospital. If we were to see things zamp up
14:19
Speaker 1: when it comes to COVID, would that be a worry
14:21
Speaker 1: for you?
14:23
Speaker 3: Territories should be reassured if we were to see community
14:25
Speaker 3: transmission people become unwell and meet hospital care. We've got
14:29
Speaker 3: a number of contingency plans across Rodalen and Palmerston Hospital
14:32
Speaker 3: that we would enact to make sure that they received
14:34
Speaker 3: the medical care that they required, and these Katie would
14:39
Speaker 3: be contingency plans that would deal with a small number
14:41
Speaker 3: of cases meeting hospitalization right through two significant numbers receiving hospitalization,
14:47
Speaker 3: and we would deploy additional resources such as a national
14:50
Speaker 3: Critical care and Trauma Response Center. So we went through
14:52
Speaker 3: all of this last March April when we first saw
14:56
Speaker 3: the virus arrive in Australia, and those plans are being
14:59
Speaker 3: continued to worry through in the time period since.
15:02
Speaker 2: Minister.
15:02
Speaker 1: I've just had a message come through from one of
15:04
Speaker 1: our listeners, big A from Palmi here, and it says
15:07
Speaker 1: I had a day seventeen test at Royal d And Hospital,
15:10
Speaker 1: the COVID clinic and was given a medical certificate and
15:13
Speaker 1: told to isolate at home until it came back negatives.
15:17
Speaker 1: Is the Minister on the same page as the clinic managers.
15:22
Speaker 3: So Katie, my nunderstanding with the day seventeen tests is
15:25
Speaker 3: it's an asymptomatic test. So this is something that our
15:27
Speaker 3: healthcare workers also have, and so it means that they
15:31
Speaker 3: it's a surveillance test, they get tested, they can go
15:33
Speaker 3: about their business because we largely expect that test to
15:36
Speaker 3: come back negative and we've got no reason to believe
15:38
Speaker 3: that they are COVID positives and then if it does
15:41
Speaker 3: come back positive that they obviously those plans are stood
15:44
Speaker 3: up around a confirmed case. So my understanding is that
15:48
Speaker 3: it's an asymptomatic test where they don't have to isolate.
15:52
Speaker 3: It's a precautionary step, all.
15:54
Speaker 2: Right, Minister.
15:54
Speaker 1: One last question and it's from a listener and it says,
15:57
Speaker 1: so is the minister saying it's okay to detain whole
16:00
Speaker 1: territory by lockdown rather than one high risk individual.
16:05
Speaker 3: So, Katie, these are really difficult times that we're in.
16:08
Speaker 3: We're trying to balance, you know, COVID. We're reacting to
16:13
Speaker 3: the latest health advice that we've got. If we hadn't
16:15
Speaker 3: done this day seventeen test, this individual would potentially be
16:19
Speaker 3: moving about our community for a number of days, and
16:21
Speaker 3: we wouldn't just have you know, a number of close
16:24
Speaker 3: and casual contact sites which potentially have hundreds. So it's
16:27
Speaker 3: an added step to protecting our community. As I said,
16:30
Speaker 3: we'll always review once something's happened. We always look to
16:33
Speaker 3: the latest health advice in making these decisions. But it
16:36
Speaker 3: is a difficult balance between making sure that we're practical
16:40
Speaker 3: but also protecting our community.
16:41
Speaker 1: All right, Minister for Hell's Natasha Files. We always appreciate
16:45
Speaker 1: your time. Thank you so much for having a chat
16:47
Speaker 1: with us this morning.
16:48
Speaker 3: Speak seeing Katie than Thank you