NT records 17 COVID-19 cases in Katherine
The death of a man in his 80s has taken the Northern Territory's COVID-19 toll to 16. Photo: AAP
The Northern Territory has detected 17 new COVID-19 cases as a cluster linked to a pocket of overcrowded homes continues to grow.
More than a dozen infections have been diagnosed among households on four streets in East Katherine, 320km south of Darwin.
“Of these 14 cases, eight are children under 12 … and there is one 70 year-old female,” Acting-Chief Minister Nicole Manison told reporters on Monday.
“It’s a big number but it’s a number we expected.”
The other five cases are adults aged between 20 and 49.
All 14 cases will be moved to The Centre for National Resilience quarantine facility at Howard Springs, south of Darwin.
A teen and a man in his 70s at the facility have also tested positive.
It brings the outbreak to 87 cases.
Ms Manison said outbreak may have also spread to Timber Creek, near the WA border.
An infected Binjari man who visited the town about 225km east of Kununurra has returned a “provisional positive” test result and is now in isolation.
A traveller who arrived on an international flight from Singapore was also diagnosed with the virus.
– AAP
