The Centralian Advocate Fri 8 Jan 2021
Centralian Advocate; NewspaperNT
2021-01-08
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
English
Community newspapers -- Northern Territory -- Alice Springs; Tennant Creek (N.T.) -- Newspapers; Alice Springs (N.T.) -- Newspapers; Australia, Central -- Newspapers
News Corp Australia
Darwin
Copyright. Made available by the publisher under licence.
News Corp Australia
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019C00042
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/821560
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/821561
FRIDAY JANUARY 8 2021 NEWS 07 V1 - NTNE01Z01MA A MAN has died after being struck by three cars in Knuckey Lagoon on Wednesday night. The drivers of all three vehicles stopped and remained at the scene, contacting triple-0. St John Ambulance Territory duty manager Craig Garraway said the man was deceased when paramedics arrived at the scene near the intersection of the Stuart Highway and Berrimah Road, about 9pm on Wednesday night. We were called to a car versus pedestrian and reports there of a person deceased at that scene, he said. When paramedics arrived the person was already deceased. Detective Senior Sergeant Brendan Lindner said drivers needed to be wary they didnt become a hazard or a distraction at such incidents. There have been a number of incidents in recent times throughout the Territory where motorists have responded to seeing hazards on the road and attempted to warn oncoming vehicles by positioning their vehicles off the road and either attempting to illuminate the hazard or flash the oncoming vehicle, he said Whilst their intentions have been to prevent crashes, doing so usually only results in distracting the oncoming driver and can make the situation worse. As a driver did in this case, the best course of action is to position your vehicle on the road to block the hazard, activate your hazard lights, stand off to the side of the road and call police. The Stuart Highway was reopened just before 6.30am yesterday morning. Man dead after being struck by three cars WILL ZWAR Repatriation numbers to reach 10,000 passengers FRIDAY marks the halfway point of the Northern Territorys commitment to quarantine 5000 Australians who were stranded overseas and with repatriation flights ahead of schedule and continuing better than anticipated it is likely that number will double to 10,000. The first repatriation flight from the UK landed in Darwin on October 23 last year. Passengers from New Dehli came next and the program was then expanded to Frankfurt, Paris, Chennai and there has been one flight from Cape Town. The 15th flight was due to land at 8am today from Chennai, bringing the current total of people in residence at the Howard Springs Centre to 682. In February last year, the Howard Springs quarantine facility was first used to quarantine Australian evacuees from virus epicentre Wuhan, and a week later passengers stuck on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. It was then that NT Health Minister Natasha Fyles, National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre executive director Len Notaras, and all of Australia, knew how important a role Howard Springs would play in the nations response to coronavirus. The care thats provided in the infection control is the highest level that you can get in terms of just from the disembarking off the plane through that RAAF side out to the facility, and the care thats provided in such a potentially infectious environment its almost purposebuilt, Ms Fyles said. Its not just an Australian standard. We actually set the standard for the World Health Organisation, Professor Notaras said. Despite decades in health, Prof Notaras could never have anticipated the destruction of the coronavirus crisis. Weve seen it in the movies but we didnt ever expect to see it, he said. So far, more than 30,000 meals have been prepared, 11,000 outbound calls made by Telehealth to check on residents wellbeing and 8000 clinical consultations performed. More than 5000 COVID-19 tests have been conducted while 70 staff have rapid antigen testing daily. There has also been 400 polymerise chain reaction tests done to date. Concerns have been raised about staff at Howard Springs contracting the virus, after quarantine workers in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales were diagnosed. However, Prof Notaras said the elite training of Australian Medical Assistance Teams professionals leading the Howard Springs effort ensured not a single staffer had contracted COVID-19. You train them within an inch of their life almost, he said. Some of our people have dealt with ebola, right through to what were dealing with at the moment. We treat everybody that we deal with as being symptomatic we dont actually shy away from being very strict in what we do and thats what sets AUSMAT apart and why all of the states and the other territory look to us. With new mutations of the virus surfacing, one of the most recent being B117 in the UK, questions have been raised about whether these repatriation flights should stop from areas with the variant. Prof Notaras said mutations were always expected and should not be a deterrent from repatriating Australians desperate to get home. (We need) vigilance rather than concern, he said. Weve got to maintain that vigilance and never become relaxed. I think thats the key to it. This is something we have to treat with caution. Minister for Health Natasha Fyles and National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre executive director Len Notaras, (inset) a Qantas repatriation flight arrives. Main picture: Che Chorley E XC LU S I V E RAPHAELLA SAROUKOS Fifteenth quarantine-bound flight lands in Darwin, marking the programs halfway mark QUARANTINE SECURITY NOT EXPOSED undertaking quarantine at the facility. Security staff did not have other work set out for them while working at Howard Springs by their security firm and had a number of other precautionary measures in place. Security staff are required to follow stringent infection control measures as part of their employment at Howard Springs quarantine facility, she said. Staff also do not work on any other jobs for the security firm they are employed by. In addition, security staff are required to undergo a temperature check every time they enter the Howard Springs quarantine facility, must have a weekly COVID-19 test and undertake PPE training fortnightly. Ms Henson said while it was all safe, the public still needed to be aware of the protocols so they didnt jump to the wrong conclusions. ITS NOT JUST AN AUSTRALIAN STANDARD. WE ACTUALLY SET THE STANDARD FOR THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION PROF LEN NOTARAS GO ON WITH COURAGE AND STRENGTH MARY MACKILLOP 1873 Students walk the Kokoda Track - Papua New Guinea, September 2019 ''