Avoiding public places has become the norm for Annemarie Lloyd since community transmission of coronavirus rose sharply in the Northern Territory.
Ms Lloyd lives with an underlying health condition that has significantly reduced her lung capacity, making it sometimes hard for her to breathe.
"I'm choosing not to go to public places, like bars," she said.
"I think I've been to one restaurant in the last four months."
Ms Lloyd was diagnosed with pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding her heart, at the height of nationwide coronavirus lockdowns in 2020.
"My shortness of breath comes out of nowhere, sometimes for no reason and sometimes just because I wanted something from the bottom drawer," she said.
"It's really frightening."
Before getting sick, the Darwin singer performed at live events most weeks and travelled interstate for gigs.
But her performances and interactions in public ground to halt when the Northern Territory opened its borders in December.
To stay safe, Ms Lloyd began her own self-imposed lockdown at the start of the year.
She now works from home as an editor, orders her groceries on the internet and limits her outings to visiting the doctor and going to the chemist.
"If I was to catch up with anybody, it's in a park or in our backyard where we can all be a couple of metres away."
The Northern Territory is currently seeing daily COVID-19 case numbers often surpass 1,000.
On Thursday, however, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the NT was now past the peak of the Omicron wave.
"We are post-peak [and] we are seeing a decline in the severity of cases … that's the trend," he said.
Data suggests Omicron is less severe than previous coronavirus variants, but that is cold comfort to Ms Lloyd, who does not feel safe being in public despite being fully vaccinated.
She said it was hard to know when she would feel safe to reclaim her old life.
"My practical brain would say, 'Well [COVID is] not going away anywhere fast and we all do have to live and go to the shop,' but the other half of me is like, 'Maybe a bit more personal responsibility would make me feel a bit better,'" she said.
"I imagine going forward it would just be like sneaking back in and seeing how it all goes because I imagine we can't do it forever."
'People are fatigued'
As more Territorians like Ms Lloyd have chosen to stay home because of the spread of the virus, or isolating due to infection, NT businesses have felt the pinch.
Kylie Arthur has worked in the hospitality sector for 35 years and has spent the past year managing a bar in the Darwin CBD.
She said she had never seen the industry under so much strain.
"We did have to shut down for 10 days due to staffing shortages earlier in January, which hurt us a lot," she said.
The bar has been forced to reduce its trading hours.
"The fear, I guess, is can we keep going? Can we hold on until things get better?" she said.
"Can my staff earn enough money to eat and pay their rent? Those sorts of things worry me."
The Northern Territory government has announced a return of a financial support package for small businesses hit hard by COVID 19.
Since its return in February, 133 NT businesses have applied for the support package and 300 businesses have started the process.
Ms Arthur said she had noticed people coming to the bar who were "fatigued with the whole situation", including their obligation to comply with the Northern Territory's vaccine passport system to enter venues.
"A lot of people have tried once or twice without the right paperwork and then they just don't bother again," she said.
