Northern Territory Police have arrested three people who they say scaled a fence and escaped from Darwin’s Howard Springs COVID-19 quarantine facility this morning.
All three tested negative to COVID yesterday, NT Police said in a statement.
NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker is due to give an update about the incident at a COVID press conference, expected to start at 11:05am.
Earlier this morning, officers in masks were searching vehicles at a blockade along Whitehood Road.
“At 4:40am, it was reported that three people from the Centre for National Resilience scaled the fence and fled the area,” an earlier statement from NT Police reads.
“Police and staff at the Centre for National Resilience are currently confirming the absconders’ identities prior to releasing further information.”
The facility is currently holding people affected by the NT’s Katherine region COVID-19 outbreak as well as returned travellers from repatriation flights.
On Monday authorities confirmed a case of the Omicron variant in a man in his 30s who arrived on a repatriation flight from South Africa, who is staying at the centre.
The Katherine region outbreak is the biggest the NT has faced so far, with 58 people infected as of Tuesday.
In a Facebook post, NT Police said “a police operation” was underway in the vicinity of Howard Springs.