Northern Territory of Australia Puts Unvaccinated on Near Total Lockdown

By Cassandra MacDonald  |  January 06, 2022

The unvaccinated in the Northern Territory of Australia have been placed on a near-total lockdown, effective on Thursday.

The unvaccinated will only be permitted to leave their home for three reasons: essential shopping, medical treatment, or caregiving β€” working and exercise did not make the cut.

If you are unvaccinated and need to leave your home for one of the allowed three reasons, you are still not permitted to travel more than 30 kilometers from your home unless you are going to the hospital.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced that the lockdown will go into effect at 1 p.m. and remain in place until midday Monday β€” when a new vaccine passport system goes into effect.

“The fully vaccinated can continue as they were. For people who are not vaccinated, lockdown rules will apply to everyone aged 16 and above,” Gunner said during a press conference.

“We’re doing this early as a sustainable measure that provides the best ability to control community transmission and who ends up in our hospitals.”

He made clear that “work is not a reason to leave the home for the unvaccinated.”

Gunner said vaccine passports are “not radical β€” other states have already brought it in.”

According to a report from ABC News, territory-wide, there are 23 people with COVID-19 in the hospital and two in the intensive care unit.

Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie said, “the epidemic epidemiological curve is very concerning,” according to their report.

“We’ve seen the case numbers go up, and as part of that, the unlinked cases, and some of that is yet to be determined in today’s numbers,” he added.

Heggie asserted that not allowing people to participate in society will be fine, because it is only for a “small number of days.”

“It’s only a small number of days while we reassess the situation and then we move to producing evidence of your vaccine status,” Heggie said. “This is a really important tipping point we are at at the moment and we’ve got to do it now before these numbers explode as you’ve seen in the states each and every day.”

However, once the lockdown is “lifted” on Monday, a vaccine passport system will be put into place.

“There will not be an ‘education first’ approach for those people when the pass comes into play,” Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said. “I accept it is your choice that you have chosen not to get the vaccination. However, that choice has to align with public expectation.”

The ABC Australia report explains that “aΒ vaccine pass will be necessary for entering high-risk hospitality settings, including pubs, clubs, casinos, restaurants, cinemas and ticketed events for more than 500 people in urban centres and more than 100 in non-urban centres.”

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