CANBERRA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Vulnerable residents of Australia's Northern Territory (NT) have been warned to stay indoors due to "very poor" air quality.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) in Winnellie, just 5.6 km east of Darwin, was 201 on Thursday while in Palmerson City, another 15 km east, was 174. By comparison, Los Angeles (LA) had an AQI of 150 on Thursday despite being home to 40 times as many people as Darwin.
According to the AQI a rating from 150 to 200 is considered "unhealthy" while 201 to 300 is "very unhealthy."
Hugh Heggie, the NT's chief health officer, on Friday advised those likely to be affected by the poor air quality to stay inside where possible and avoid excessive exercise over the weekend.
"I'd recommend staying indoors, particularly if you are very young, or elderly or frail - or if you have chronic lung conditions," he told News Corp Australia on Friday.
"It's important that people who know they have asthma have their medicines available and use them if they're feeling unwell or breathless."
Heggie said that the smog, caused by low cloud cover and smoke in the air, was likely to continue for at least a few days.
"We've had quite a lot of biomass burning, which is from bushfires and burn-off," he said.
"The biomass particles are very small and have been gathering over the last few days because we haven't had the normal wind, and also we've had higher humidity."
