The Northern Territory has not recorded any new local cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, with lockout restrictions in Katherine and surrounding communities likely to be lifted tomorrow.
The Katherine region outbreak total remains at 61 cases.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the lack of any new cases meant lockout restrictions were likely to be lifted in Katherine, Binjari and Rockhole from noon tomorrow, as scheduled.
A mask mandate will remain in place for a week after the lockout ends.
Mr Gunner said the final decision on whether to lift the Katherine lockout would be made tomorrow morning based on advice from the Chief Health Officer, and would be informed by test results expected to come in overnight.
He said the lockout wouldn't necessarily be extended if more cases were found.
"We are expecting more cases, but if they are not community spread cases, it will still be our intention to proceed with lifting the lockout," he said.
"We are going to keep seeing cases pop up; a case here and there does not necessarily mean a community goes into lockdown or lockout. It depends on where it is, what the links are, what the vulnerabilities are.
"This is part of our new normal in the Territory."
Mr Gunner said 30 people had been identified as close contacts of a three-year-old girl in Katherine who was reported as a positive case yesterday.
He said the contacts were spread across three households in the Katherine East area.
All of the affected households are within the Bicentennial Road wastewater catchment area, where samples have been testing positive for COVID for weeks.
Mr Gunner said the latest wastewater results from that catchment were also positive, and the signal strength was "higher than it has been for some time".
"That means that it is very likely there are more cases in this area, likely among these three households," he said.
The positive case and seven of her close contacts have been transferred to the Howard Springs quarantine facility.
Authorities are still waiting on the results of their COVID tests.
More to come.
NT records zero new local COVID cases, lockout restrictions likely to lift tomorrow in Katherine, Binjari and Rockhole - ABC News
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