Good news Sydney, you may soon be able to flex your toes in the beautiful red sands of the Northern Territory, with borders being reopened as soon as October. This latest decision comes from NT’s Chief Minister Michael Gunner, who announced he will be allowing travel from Sydney to NT, as long as they maintain a steady downward trend of COVID-19 cases.
“This morning, Dr (Hugh) Heggie advised he’s now satisfied with the progress that’s been made in Sydney to recommend a change to their hot spot status,” Gunner said at a Darwin press conference today.
According to Gunner, Sydney’s “sustained downward trend” of new cases, its seven days straight of 10 or fewer cases and its “superb” contact tracing team, all helped lead to his decision.
For Greater Sydney, they will have their hot spot declaration status removed in just 28 days (which also happens to be an incredible movie starring Sandra Bullock.)
“The Northern Territory will plan to remove the hot spot status declaration for Greater Sydney in 28 days’ time,” Gunner said.
The lucky Sydneysiders will also be able to bypass that pesky supervised 14 day quarantine. Woohoo.
The four-week buffer period will allow Sydney time to complete two full replication cycles, to ensure they maintain a downward trend.
Melbournians will have to wait a bit longer to make holiday plans. As Gunner admitted, while the drop in case numbers is “encouraging”, there is still a long way to go before NT travel will be possible.
It’s some much deserved good news for Sydney, that will undoubtedly make Melbournians (i.e. me), even more jealous of our northern friends.
