‘Reckless’ Canadian pilots commit major quarantine breach in Darwin
Two Canadian firefighting pilots breach quarantine by leaving Darwin hotel ‘several times’
A PAIR of Canadian firefighting pilots that had been allowed to quarantine at a Darwin hotel broke critical COVID-19 safety rules by leaving the building “several times”, in a major breach that has angered authorities.
NT Health confirmed the two men, who were due to travel interstate to work as a bushfire emergency management team once they have finished quarantine, arrived in the Territory from Canada on Monday, November 9.
In a reckless and disrespectful act that authorities said “put the safety of Territorians at risk”, the men left their hotel several times and were spotted not wearing masks while inside the premise.
Their breaches were uncovered during an NT Police compliance check.
The men were fined and carted off to the Howard Springs facility for the rest of their quarantine stint.
The men had returned a negative coronavirus test according to NT Health.
All other international arrivals have been made to quarantine at Darwin’s Howard Springs facility but an NT Health spokeswoman said under national guidelines flight crew are able to undertake quarantine “under an alternative arrangement”.
Canada has seen a significant spike in coronavirus cases this week, including a total of 5516 cases on Thursday — the highest daily caseload the country had seen since the beginning of the pandemic.
By contrast, the Northern Territory has not recorded a single community-transmitted case of coronavirus since the start of the crisis and no one has died.
NT Police Incident Controller acting commander Sachin Sharma said it was “disappointing that these individuals engaged in irresponsible behaviour”.
The NT recorded five cases of coronavirus on Friday, with all the new positive tests being recorded among newly repatriated Australians flying into Darwin from overseas.
A total of 829 repatriated Australians have been put into quarantined at Howard Springs since the operation began on October 23.
Another little reminder that what you do when you are "not in the office" matters - let's hope there are no collateral consequences.
