Cruise ship docks in Sydney with 800 Covid-positive passengers

• An epidemic of infections was discovered on the Majestic Princess Cruises ship.
• 800 passengers and a small number of crew had positive Covid-19 tests after 3,300 passengers had mass tests.
• New South Wales Ministry of Health reported 19,800 new cases of Covid last week.

Following a surge of illnesses, a cruise liner with hundreds of Covid-positive passengers docked in Sydney, Australia.

According to Carnival Australia President Marguerite Fitzgerald, an epidemic of infections was discovered on the Majestic Princess cruise ship around halfway through a 12-day journey.

According to media there were 4,600 passengers and staff members on board the ship at the time.

Approximately 800 passengers and a small number of crew members had positive Covid-19 tests after 3,300 passengers had mass tests, according to Fitzgerald.

“All positive cases were mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and those guests isolated in their staterooms and then separated from non-impacted guests,” parent company Princess Cruises representative Briana Latter told media.

According to media cruise operators separately took passengers who were affected off the ship and encouraged them to finish a five-day isolation period.

According to a New South Wales Health Department, those who tested negative were free to exit the ship.

“Carnival has advised NSW Health that they are assisting passengers with Covid-19 to make safe onward travel arrangements,” the statement added.

Latter said the outbreak aboard the Majestic Princess was “reflective of an increase in community transmission in Australia.”

Covid instances have increased recently in Australia, prompting the government to be more cautious.

In the previous week, the New South Wales Ministry of Health reported 19,800 new cases of Covid-19 and 22 fatalities.

Since then, the Majestic Princess cruise ship has sailed from Sydney to Melbourne and Tasmania.

In a later statement, Fitzgerald said Carnival Australia have made over 50 international and domestic voyages “with a vast majority of more than 100,000 guests unimpacted by Covid.”
“However, the emergence of Covid in the community has meant we have seen a rise in positive cases on the last three voyages,” she said.

Fitzgerald said that the business has been employing “the most stringent and tight precautions which go well above existing requirements,” such as requiring 95% of visitors over the age of 12 to be immunized and testing employees and passengers for Covid before boarding.

“We take our responsibility to keep everyone safe very seriously. This extends to not only caring for our guests, but also for the wider community in which we operate and visit,” Fitzgerald said.

Not the first Carnival cruise to experience a Covid epidemic is the Majestic Princess.

The Grand Princess, Diamond Princess, and at least three additional ships in the company’s Princess fleet all had outbreaks early in the pandemic.

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