Yesterday afternoon 17 local residents who have been in COVID quarantine in Alice Springs were released to their homes under strict monitoring and compliance arrangements, according to the Department of the Chief Minister and Cabinet.
This system has been activated in Alice Springs to help manage the number of Territorians returning to the NT.
“The Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) has been investigating systems and processes to offer self-quarantine as a manageable option for Territory residents returning from interstate hotspots,” says a media release.
“This system will only be activated to support the Alice Springs Quarantine Facility when it is nearing capacity, and will only be available for those considered to live in suitable locations.
“Police and Environmental Health Officers will continue to carry out stringent physical compliance checks.”
A digital monitoring system (G2G) will also be activated to make sure people are strictly in their place of quarantine.
“This is an additional compliance tool that will enable the EOC to carry out strict digital compliance checks … that has been successfully used by Western Australia for many months and the activation of the system in the NT allows us to provide a broader, rigorous compliance system as we continue to respond to the Covid pandemic and work to keep all Territorians safe.
“These people and their residential situations have been assessed. Those transferring to home quarantine have tested negative and been deemed by Health authorities to be low risk.”
PHOTO: No more razor wire for some.
So the facility is filling up, because they keep letting people into the territory.
The line “the system has been activated in Alice Springs to help manage the number of Territorians returning to the NT” is pure political spin. Perhaps stop everybody, apart from Territorians coming back in.
I really love it though, when the powers to be use ambiguous words such as “low risk”. Considering we know very little about COVID, releasing people because the facility is full, is fool hardy and irresponsible.
As someone pointed out in an earlier article, a lot of people clearly can’t be trusted, so why how can we are release them back into mainstream and what are the “stringent checks”?
Furthermore, once the virus is passed on, you can do all the “stringent checks” you like, but I’m sure it will make little difference.
I call this high risk not low risk. BTW, the razor wire looks like it took all of 20 minutes to add 🙂 (Secured with tie wire?) but it would be easier to just remove the two tek screws holding the fence panel!
And this is a secure facility? Will we ever treat our responses to Covid seriously?