The Northern Territory has recorded 11 new local COVID-19 cases linked to the Katherine outbreak, Health Minister Natasha Fyles has said.
The total number of cases linked to the Katherine outbreak stands at 123.
Two of those cases were household contacts of previous cases connected with Katherine East, Ms Fyles said.
One of them is a child under 10 and the other is a teenager, and both of them have been in quarantine at Howard Springs, presenting a "very low risk to the community", Ms Fyles said.
Nine cases were linked to the Tennant Creek area.
There were three cases not linked to the Katherine outbreak.
One was a close contact of two men who flew from Brisbane to Yulara near Uluru and tested positive to COVID-19 shortly after arriving.
Ms Fyles said testing had confirmed both men had the Omicron strain.
She said authorities "strongly suspect that this [new] case will also be Omicron".
The two other cases not linked to the Katherine outbreak are an international aircrew member who flew on the London to Darwin Qantas flight QF2 and is already isolating, and a woman from Adelaide who recently arrived in the NT and was not fully vaccinated.
Ms Fyles said the woman was sent to the Howard Springs quarantine facility, and has been ordered to leave the Territory immediately because she was not double-vaccinated.
"You have to be double-vaccinated to enter the Northern Territory," she said.
"We know that vaccination is a tool to keeping our community safe."
Nine cases in Tennant Creek, testing rate increases
The nine cases in Tennant Creek include a 46-year-old woman and a child under 10, identified as close contacts and already isolating at home.
Two children under five from the Wuppa Camp have tested positive at Howard Springs quarantine facility.
A child under 10 and a woman in her 20s who were close contacts of COVID-19 cases near Barrow Creek have also returned positive coronavirus tests.
Further cases linked to Tennant Creek include a woman in her 50s, and two women in their 60s who are both at Royal Darwin Hospital — one of whom is in the ICU.
Ms Fyles said more than 280 coronavirus tests were conducted in Tennant Creek over the past 24 hours.
She said authorities would not make a decision about the ongoing lockdown in Tennant Creek until they had seen the latest vaccination and testing data.
More than 200 coronavirus tests were conducted in Katherine yesterday, she said.
Some 54 vaccine doses were administered yesterday in Ali Curing, a remote community about 170 kilometres south of Tennant Creek, Ms Fyles said.
"There's about 350 to 400 people in Ali Curung, so to see 50 people come forward and get vaccinated, that is fantastic," she said.
Ms Fyles said more exposure sites would be listed on the NT government's coronavirus website.
The Wayout Bush Store at Ti Tree has been listed as a casual close contact site on December 17 between 8pm and 10pm, she said.
The Shell Coles Express Alice Springs truck stop in Braitling is a casual contact site from 12 to 2pm, though Ms Fyles could not confirm the date.
People who have attended these casual contact sites must self-quarantine and contact the COVID-19 hotline immediately, she said.
Coronavirus test results taking too long: Fyles
Ms Fyles said she acknowledged wait times for coronavirus test results were taking far too long.
She said health authorities in other states and territories were also battling a backlog of coronavirus tests awaiting processing.
She said interstate arrivals who got a COVID-19 test within 72 hours before arriving in the NT but had not received their results by the time they landed must show border controllers a text message proving they had booked the test.
"We are then booking you in for an appointment here in the Territory and allowing you to go to your place of residence or where you may be staying to isolate," she said.
Ms Fyles said as expected, authorities were seeing "significant numbers of people arrive back into the Territory" after border rules eased on Monday.
'This is a Delta pandemic'
Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie said Territorians could expect some "teething problems" related to the easing of border controls.
He also said the Delta strain was behind the NT's coronavirus outbreak.
Dr Heggie urged Territorians to reconsider their need to travel and who they socialise with, and encouraged them to get vaccinated and wear face masks if social distancing is not possible.
"No matter where you are, you cannot assume that there actually is no Delta around you," he said.
He said the Omicron variant appeared to be "as infectious as measles, but nowhere near as virulent", meaning it was possibly more transmissible but less deadly than the Delta strain.
