CHO Direction 49 – Changes to Territory Border Restrictions

Department of the Chief Minister

CHO Direction 49 takes affect from 12 noon today.

These Directions revoke and replace CHO Directions No 45, No 47 and No 48.

Notable changes include:

An unaccompanied minor (a child under 18 years of age) required to undertake mandatory supervised quarantine is no longer permitted to quarantine at home. The minor and a parent or responsible adult will need to undertake mandatory quarantine at a supervised quarantine facility for the quarantine period.

CHO Direction 49 changes the way the 14 day mandatory quarantine period is calculated.

The Direction takes into consideration the time spent outside of a hotspot immediately prior to entering the NT.

For example, if a person left the City of Sydney (currently declared a hotspot) on 1 September 2020 and arrived in the Territory on 6 September 2020, the quarantine period for the person would end at noon on 15 September 2020 and the person would complete nine days of quarantine.

This will minimise the impact of quarantine on an individual and continues to safeguard community from COVID-19 spread. This decision is based on COVID-19 having a 14 day replication cycle, which is the virus’ incubation period. Most people who are infected will develop symptoms within 14 days of infection.

There is no change to quarantine requirements for international arrivals – if a person is an international arrival they will undertake 14 days mandatory supervised quarantine.

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