Aboriginal Peak Organisations NT has called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene with Rapid Antigen Tests and Defence Force support to stop the spread of COVID-19.

APO NT, which is an alliance of Aboriginal medical, justice and housing organisations, along with land councils and businesses, said the situation in the Northern Territory was a ‘growing emergency’.

APO NT spokesperson John Paterson said the haste towards living with COVID was pushing the health system, Aboriginal community service organisations and the communities they serve to the brink.

“We need urgent direct support from the Commonwealth Government,” he said.

“The multiple outbreaks we are now seeing in remote communities and in our towns have been fuelled by a critical shortage of workforce, testing and logistical capacity that is overwhelming local health services and exhausted staff, leading to rapid, avoidable spread of the virus”. 

“Critical shortages in availability of Rapid Antigen Tests is leaving Aboriginal health and community service organisations with insufficient capacity to test their own staff, let alone the needs of the community members they serve. The result is that infected individuals are not being identified and are spreading the virus undetected.”

The plea for help coincides with the Northern Land Council’s chairman Samuel Bush-Blanasi announcing that the NLC was postponing all meetings, and directing staff to work from home wherever possible, until the COVID-19 situation stabilises.