Twelve adults, seven children and one toilet.
That's life in isolation for Napaljarri Wayne and her Yuendumu household.
"Seven kids under 12, it's hard," she said.
"We keep telling them to stay and sit but they keep running around — the yard is small."
Ms Wayne's family was placed in isolation a week ago and has since tested positive for COVID-19.
She is one of more than 100 people in the 800-person community who have contracted the virus since the outbreak began two weeks ago.
The grandmother was evacuated from community Thursday afternoon, but she described her four days in isolation at home as "scary" and "stressful".
On top of the mental stress of constantly being in close quarters with many other people, she said it was extremely difficult to keep her house clean.
For two days her home's hot water was off because of a storm, making it even harder to stay hygienic.
Ms Wayne's experience is not unique.
As of Friday, 17 houses in Yuendumu were in isolation — many of them overcrowded.
As the case numbers grow across the region, it is likely that hundreds more people will be isolating in homes with more than 10 other people sharing one toilet.
The Northern Territory government said each situation was assessed on a case by case basis. But with Coronavirus now in more than a dozen remote communities, there is less and less capacity to remove positive cases from overcrowded homes.
Positive cases not isolating
Community leader and Warlpiri broadcaster Ned Hargraves said he, like other leaders, felt excluded from the government's response.
According to NT Health, 45 cases were isolating in Yuendumu as of Friday, a figure that concerns Mr Hargraves.
With English as people's fourth or fifth language, Mr Hargraves said positive cases were leaving isolation because the importance of staying put had not been appropriately explained.
"The ones who have COVID, it's not really being explained: 'We need you to stay in this house'," he said.
He said NT Health staff were working hard but were at capacity and without Warlpiri language support, people did not have enough information to make appropriate public health decisions.
He has spent this week broadcasting Warlpiri public health advice to his community.
But, Mr Hargraves said "delays" in removing cases from community and the language barrier made for a perfect storm.
"We need quick and smart moves," he said.
No 'consistent policy'
Mr Hargraves and other Warlpiri community leaders said the government's response was different from the one they believed had been planned since the start of the pandemic.
They were expecting swift evacuations, quick lockdown measures, more robust support, and the option of isolation areas in community.
But with the arrival of Omicron and the unprecedented spread of the virus, people on the ground said it was clear NT Health was struggling to cope.
CEO of Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation, Johanna Ward, who is part of regular government briefings about the situation, said the response was "constantly moving and changing".
"[The response in Yuendumu] started with as many people as possible who are positive will be removed, then it was: 'We don't know if we'll take all the people because we don't have the resources', and now it's changed to 'We are going to take the most vulnerable'."
As of Sunday, 88 people had been removed from the community and Ms Ward commended staff on the ground who were faced with a very challenging situation.
NT Health did not respond to specific questions on how many staff it had deployed to Yuendumu, but in a statement, a spokesperson said: "The situation in Yuendumu changes daily and is responded to accordingly".
"NT Health, NT Police, and other agencies work closely with local people to communicate clearly about testing and isolation requirements," the spokesperson said.
Vaccination not always enough
In Darwin, 1,600 kilometres away, the head of Danila Dilba Health Service said removing positive cases from community as quickly as possible remained a priority because vaccination was not always enough to protect people with underlying health conditions.
This had been proven following the death of a fully vaccinated woman from the community of Baggot.
"My condolences go out to the family and community," CEO Rob McPhee said.
Following "high-level meetings", Mr McPhee said he understood it was still NT Health policy to remove people from communities but, with time, that would be "more and more challenging as those facilities fill up".
He said a focus on reaching a 90 per cent vaccination rate among everyone in the community aged five and up would save lives.
Yuendumu is due to exit a lockdown on January 29.
