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Katie spoke with Katherine Mayor Lis Clarke about the developing Covid situation in the region · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On the line right now is the Mayor of Catherine,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Liz Clark. Good morning to you, Liz.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, good morning Katie.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Very well, Liz, thanks so much for your time. I
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: would imagine that it's a pretty hectic time in Catherine today,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: on that first full day of lockdown. What is the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: feeling in Catherine this morning?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I think I think the feeling is I think most
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: like we've all been expecting this to happen at some point,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: because it was a matter of when it was going
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: to happen, not if. And I think people are, you know,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I think they're a bit upset about it this time,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: you know, because we've just come out of lockdown or lockout,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: and and now we're in the serious lockdown, which means
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: essential services and not only so of course people won't
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: be they're probably feeling the same as what the Victorians
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: that they had it for much longer than we have.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, Liz, we know that the Chief Minister's Office have
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: flagged that there's going to be more positive cases today.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: We don't know what kind of numbers we're looking at.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: What are you hearing around town?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Well, I heard that these The first person was actually
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: in the hotel for quite a few hours, went across
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: to buy some fisition ships the shop across the road,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: went back to the hotel, and of course we don't
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: know how many people have been infected there, the original
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: person plus the people that were living in the house
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: of all being we're all flowing to dal On yesterday afternoon,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: so of course, but we still have to I think
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: they still have to find the original where this person
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: got his you know, where he actually got it from.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Liz, we also know obviously one of those cases
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: has traveled to the remote community of Robinson River. There's
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: no doubt that that is a concern. We know that.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: You know that there is a lot of very transient
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: you know, the population is very transient right across the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Northern territory. But indeed, in Catherine, is that a warry
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: at this point?
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  Speaker 2: I think it is a very big worry because you know,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: once and that was that was the biggest worry everyone had,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: was that going into our remote communities. Luckily, well not
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: luckily that Robinson River actually have seventy percent of the
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: people there have been vaccinated. So you know, we just
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: have to hope that, you know, it hasn't gone any
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: further borrol Lula because we've had because they had some
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: good rains recently, the road was pretty bad going to
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: borol Lula. So they're just hoping that no one has
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: managed to sort of go from Robinson River to borrol
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Lula in these last few days. Liz, I know, as.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: You've said obviously that this person or that there were
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: people or the person who is who is a positive case,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: was that Kirby's Pub. It's been listed as an exposure
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: site on the coronavirus website. Is it a pretty busy pub, Yes, very.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Busy, very busy pub. Yes, it is one of the
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: main ones, of course, so yes, it is a very
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: busy pub. And of course we, like I said, we
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: don't know how many people were in there at the
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: same time that could now be, you know, and this
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: is what they've got to find out.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Still, Liz, are you expecting that there's going to be
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: more positive cases in Catherine today?
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I think so. I can't see how it couldn't, although
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: the person that did originally you know, that was had
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: it was double backed. But you know, we just don't know.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, you can still you can still pass that
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: on and be systematic if you can still pass it
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: on to other people. I have no doubt there'll be
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: more cases.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: And Liz, how are businesses feeling this morning? I know
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: that it's a tough time then when a lot of
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: those businesses have to shut shop as a result of
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: this type of thing, how are they feeling around the community.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I think they're feeling very upset about it all because
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: you know, of course it effects particularly the businesses, non
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: essential businesses. You know, there are lots of revenue as well. Yeah,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: and like not only that, I think you have to
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: because you have to stay in Yeah, you can't go anywhere,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: you can't do anything. So I guess it's a good
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: time to catch up on on things at home. But
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: definitely laughed a little while.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: And from council's perspective, I'm assuming there's anything that isn't
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: essential really has to sort of stop at this point
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: in time.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, all our essential things are shut down. There are
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: people that are able to work from home. We are
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: we do have that capability, so yeah, people are able
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: to work from home, but the essential services like the
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: library and the waste management facilities have closed down, you
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: know for the time being.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Liz, just finally, are you expecting some big numbers when
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: it comes to you know, when it comes to locals
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: going and getting tested today.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: I hope so, because they were concerned last week that
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: there were not many testing cases about I just over
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: four hundred people. They were expecting a lot more, particularly
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: as they found when they found COVID in the sewage
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: last week. They are expecting a lot more people to
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: come forward and be tested. But we didn't get the numbers.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: So hopefully, you know, this will be a wake up
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: call perhaps for people to go and be tested if
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: they have any kind of symptoms, you know, fever or
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: sore throws or anything like that, you know, just in
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: case you should be tested.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good advice, I reckon. Liz. Thank you so much
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: for your time today and all the best, no doubt
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: we'll talk to you again very soon.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, thank you very much, Katie, have a godame.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you you too,