An Australian with COVID-19 is being treated in an intensive care unit in Darwin after being evacuated from Timor-Leste on a humanitarian flight, the Northern Territory Health Minister says.
"The Northern Territory is caring for an individual, an Australian, at Royal Darwin Hospital, who did get repatriated in from Timor-Leste," Natasha Fyles said at a press conference today.
"They are an Australian and that was made from a humanitarian perspective."
Ms Fyles did not provide any other details about the person, including their age and gender.
She said she did not know when they were transported to Darwin, but said there would be no cost to Territory taxpayers.
She confirmed the person was being treated in one of two intensive care beds dedicated to COVID-19 patients at the hospital.
She said contingency plans were in place in case other COVID-19 patients required intensive care treatment in Darwin.
"We have one individual being cared for in ICU and if we were to see more people take ill we would look at that situation," she said.
"We went through a number of scenarios last year, particularly when we didn't know how the virus would impact the Northern Territory.
"There was a number of things that we could do and steps we could put in place to care for multiple people at different levels of illness with the virus."
There are currently three active cases of COVID-19 in the NT, according to government figures.
Timor-Leste maintained a relatively low caseload throughout the first 12 months of the pandemic but began to report community transmission earlier this year.
Dili was placed in lockdown in March amid fears of a local outbreak, but doctors working in the country warned the effort was hampered by a flood disaster weeks later.
Figures from Johns Hopkins University show the tiny nation north of Australia has recorded more than 100 new cases every day throughout May.
