COVID-related admissions to hospital in the Northern Territory have risen to 43, with 625 new cases of the coronavirus recorded in the latest reporting period.
NT Health Minister Natasha Fyles said 27 of the COVID-19 patients were considered acute admissions and one patient in Alice Springs was in intensive care.
She said the number of people in hospital was a jump on the 39 admissions yesterday.
The 625 new cases are also a spike on figures seen on Monday, when the NT recorded 284 cases, and marks a new daily record for the Territory.
"This is a large jump on the figures provided yesterday," Ms Fyles said.
However, she said, the jump was expected, with less testing done on weekends, producing fewer reports on Mondays.
Of the new cases, 534 were recorded from rapid antigen tests.
Ms Fyles said she was not worried about the jump in case numbers
"When you put it with the numbers we saw yesterday, it's not greatly concerning to us," she said.
Acting Deputy Chief Health Officer Marco Briceno said the rate of admissions to hospital rate was also remaining "stable".
"These numbers are slightly higher than we had yesterday, however a significant proportion of these patients are low-acuity and they probably don't need a high level of hospital care and could be cared for outside a hospital setting," Dr Briceno said.
He said authorities were working to increase opportunities for people with COVID-19 to be cared for outside of hospital.
There are now a total of 4,142 active cases of COVID-19 in the NT.
Of those, 2,971 people have a Territory address.
Ms Fyles said 2,114 of the cases were in the Greater Darwin area, 543 were in Alice Springs, 70 were in East Arnhem, 211 were in Katherine and 33 were in the Barkly region.
Ms Fyles said 13 new cases were recorded at an Alice Springs renal hostel that was already in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak.
"That is a significant focus for our health teams presently," she said.
She said there were also eight new cases at the Alice Springs prison, which took the total number of cases there to 35, eight in staff and 27 among prisoners.
Seven new cases were recorded in Amoonguna, just outside of Alice Springs, bringing the total number of cases there to 28.
Ms Fyles said three new cases were detected in Papunya, eight in Utopia and seven in Areyonga.
Nine new cases were recorded in Yuendumu, bringing the cluster between the community and nearby Yuelamu to 66.
Ms Fyles however said that no testing had been undertaken in Yuelamu in the most recent reporting period because of a lack of access to the community.
She said Acting Police Commissioner Michael Murphy was travelling to Alice Springs today and would be speaking to authorities about the situation in Central Australia, with a focus on Yuendumu and Yuelamu.
Eight new cases were recorded in the community of Galiwin'ku, on Elcho Island, which the government sent into lockdown yesterday.
It brings the total number of cases in that community to 27.
All of the cases were close household contacts, and four cases have been transported to the Howard Springs quarantine facility, Ms Fyles said.
Yirrkala, which also went into lockdown yesterday, did not record any new cases of COVID-19, Ms Fyles said.
Ms Fyles said authorities were continuing to test as many people there as possible.
"We've had a focus on going in and testing those close contacts and we are setting up a testing centre in Yirrkala today so community members can easily access a test," she said.
"And they can also get tested in Nhulunbuy, they can leave to go in and get tested."
Ms Fyles said a case had been recorded in Alyanula on Groote Eyelandt.
Four new cases were recorded in Darwin's prison, bringing the outbreak in the prison to eight cases.
Confusion over alert system for COVID contacts
This morning Ms Fyles said she was aware of frustrations around the Northern Territory government's exposure site messaging system.
Last Friday, the government revealed no users of its COVID-19 check-in app had been notified if they were at a venue at the same time as a positive case for about a week due to a "reporting failure".
However, since the government recommenced sending its message alerts last Friday, its messages have not included where or when people had been to an exposure site, with notifications telling recipients simply that they had been to an exposure site and to monitor for symptoms.
Ms Fyles said the new system indicated the COVID-19 situation in Territory had "shifted".
"There's COVID in every region of the NT. When you leave the house you should be prepared to encounter COVID," she told ABC Radio Darwin's Breakfast program.
"The messages [are] designed to be a simple reminder to monitor for those symptoms. It's shifting our mindset that there is COVID in our community."
Yesterday, the opposition's Shadow Minister for Health, Bill Yan, said the text messages lacked "any details or useful information".
"How do these texts add any greater safety measure to what we have already been informed of, which is to monitor for symptoms and get tested if required?" he asked.
"What about circumstances where young children are involved — those who don't need to check in?
"Worried parents and carers just don't know where and when the contact may have occurred."
Mr Yan said the change to the messaging system was "another example of a lack of planning and poor communication" by the government.
