A cruise ship housing approximately 800 passengers who recently tested positive for COVID-19 is about to disembark in Sydney Harbour.
The Majestic Princess docked in Circular Quay on Saturday morning after a 12-night return cruise to New Zealand.
NSW Health has classified the situation as a “tier three risk level”, the highest possible COVID alert tier as per 9News.
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Stuart Allison, the senior vice president of Princess Cruises said they were assisting COVID-positive passengers to book “private transport and accommodation to continue isolation when they disembark”.
“We also have a range of strict and robust measures in place to ensure our guests and crew are safe, as well as ensuring we limit the exposure of current cases in the community,” he said in a statement.
According to the VP, every single passenger has had to take a rapid antigen test in the 24 hours before disembarking.
They have also been advised not to take public transport as per the SMH.
Yeah good.
This latest COVID-filled cruise reminds us of the haunting Ruby Princess ship.
For those who’d love a refresher, the Ruby Princess docked in Sydney at the very beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.
It caused a surge of infections after its 2700 passengers hopped off without any preventative measures or protective regulations enforced.
They fucked around and subsequently, found out.
It was messy, to say the least.
The timing of this latest COVID cruise also coincides with the latest wave of infections across Australia.
This week alone, over 58,000 new cases were reported across all states and territories with the upward trend expected to continue as per Guardian Australia.
Dr Kerry Chant, NSW’s head health honcho (AKA Chief Health Officer) said on Friday that “the wave is taking off with some trajectory, it will be quite a steep wave and hopefully the decline will be equally as steep,”
“There is a sense that the wave may well peak before Christmas and we may be on the decline [by that point].”
Currently, it’s looking like Princess Cruises is managing the difficult situation as best as possible given the difficult circumstances.
However, it’s best not to count our COVID chickens before they hatch. We’ve been burned before.
More to come.
