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Northern Territory police say they don't believe three teenagers who allegedly absconded from Darwin's Howard Springs COVID-19 quarantine facility this morning came into contact with members of the community.

"This the first time we've had to use the centre for large numbers of people from an Aboriginal community, but it probably won't be the last time," he said.

Since the confirmation of cases in the community of Robinson River and Katherine on November 15, positive cases and hundreds of household and other close contacts have been flown to the facility in Darwin to undertake quarantine.

Mr Gunner said the isolation in quarantine was "pretty hard for some people ... used to being close to family and community."

He said the escape could mean an extension of the time the teenagers were required to stay in quarantine.

"Absconding from Howard Springs isn't just dangerous — it is incredibly stupid," he said.

"Because we will catch you and there will be consequences."

The escape comes days after a 27-year-old man escaped the facility by scaling a fence and heading for the Mitchell Street party strip in a waiting vehicle.

The man tested negative for the virus but the incident is still under investigation, with police searching for the driver of the vehicle involved.

Commissioner Chalker said CCTV coverage would be increased at the facility, but it was not possible for officers to be stationed at all possible exit points.

He said fines of $5,024 applied to breaches of a Chief Health Officer direction.

A 31-year-old woman in Australia has been charged with arson after she set fire to the COVID-19 quarantine hotel where she was staying on Sunday morning, authorities said.

The unidentified woman lit the fire in the 11th-floor room where she was quarantined with her two children at the Pacific Hotel Cairns in the northern city of Cairns, the BBC reported.

No one was injured in the blaze, but more than 160 people were forced to evacuate, police said.

Acting Chief Superintendent Chris Hodgman said the woman was in custody and police were caring for her children.

He said the woman had been in quarantine for a couple of days and there had been issues with her that authorities “were managing,” Hodgman said.

The incident came as tensions rose in parts of Australia due to COVID-19 restrictions and the latest concerns over the emergence of the Omicron variant, which was first detected in South Africa by scientists.

It is alleged she lit a fire under a bed in the room she had been sharing with two children on Sunday morning.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-59450174

...It came as Australia confirmed two cases of the new coronavirus variant which is prompting new restrictions.

...*This family made it back to Australia but was initially banned from seeing their dying parent in Queensland

Australians have spent 20 months under some of the world's strictest border rules, in an effort to keep out Covid.

See video, *the couple were fully vaxxed and had tested negative. Initially they had been given a quarantine exemption but just as their plane was about to take off they received a phone call saying they were no longer exempt.