Northern Territory (NT) Chief Minister Michael Gunner announced on Wednesday that the NT-wide indoor mask mandate would end as of next Monday. Gunner said the decision was made based on the downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations after statistics showed in February, there were around 6,500 active COVID-19 cases in the NT and 129 people in hospital with the virus, compared to 4,000 active cases and 76 people in hospital with COVID-19 on Wednesday. “So we can now say with certainty that we have passed the peak,” Gunner said. This comes after Shadow Health Minister Bill Yan expressed frustration on Monday over the ambiguity of the Chief Minister’s comments on when the mandate would be lifted. Gunner had indicated recently that they were looking to lift the mandate but couldn’t give a date and used vague expressions like ‘sooner rather than later’ and ‘days not weeks’, prompting Yan to …