Aboriginal health services in the Northern Territory are shutting down over Christmas, prompting calls for the federal government to step in and provide local health support to communities that have been exposed to Covid.
Health centres such as Anyinginyi health Aboriginal corporation, which is based in Tennant Creek and the Barkley region, where more than 130 people have tested positive, will close on Friday afternoon and remain closed until Wednesday morning.
Northern Territory senator Malarndirri McCarthy says the shutdown was foreseeable and the federal government should step in to provide holiday cover.
“It’s concerning that some health clinics in remote Central Australian communities are shutting down over the Christmas period,” the Yanyuwa woman told Guardian Australia. “The federal government should have had contingency plans to support the health of remote communities through the holiday period.”
The NT recorded 10 new cases on Thursday, five of which were in Tennant Creek.
Tennant Creek is now under a lockout order, which means that double-vaccinated people can move around provided they wear masks. Unvaccinated people, or those who have only received one dose, are still in lockdown.
People who are fully vaccinated and can produce a negative rapid antigen test are allowed to leave the town, but only double-vaccinated essential workers are allowed into remote communities.
The Northern Territory’s second dose vaccination rate currently sits at 83.7% for people aged 16 and over.
But vaccination rates are much lower in the regions. As of last week, just 37% of people aged 16 and over in the Barkley region had received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccination. Vaccination rates in communities such as Epenarra and Canteen Creek were even lower, with double dose rates of 20% and 26% respectively.
“We have to be mindful that while the territory as a whole has reached its vaccination target, many remote communities are lagging behind,” McCarthy said.
First Nations people were part of the first phase of the vaccine rollout, but lack of supplies combined with misinformation campaigns slowed the uptake.
McCarthy said that misinformation would have been countered earlier if the federal government had funded public health campaigns in language at the start of the rollout.
“It’s great to see First Nations health and media groups providing in-language messaging about vaccines, but we need to see a consistency of funding for this from the federal government,” she said.
Anyinginyi has provided daily video updates on social media to explain the restrictions. Chair Ross Jakamarra Williams said that people who have been identified as close contacts of positive cases will be taken to Howard Springs to quarantine.
“We know Covid is around us,” he said, in a message posted on the health service’s Facebook page on Thursday.
“The government mob, police are doing contact tracing to check on whether some of us might be in close contact with someone who had Covid. Don’t panic, they are doing it for our safety and to protect our community for the virus. They will be taking us to Howard Springs for safety and for safety of our family and community.
“Pack your bag with things that you really need and follow the instructions of the police. And once you’ve been tested negative you can come back. Remember we are in a pandemic. We are doing all of this for the safety of our family and our community.”