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Infected passengers were allowed to leave the ship in Sydney in March
Australian government officials have apologized for their failure to deal with a massive Covid-19 outbreak on the cruise ship Ruby Princess.
Last week, a New South Wales health authority found “serious errors” in which about 2,650 passengers were stranded when the ship docked in Sydney in March.
These people were not tested for the virus, despite suspected cases on board.
The ship was eventually linked to at least 900 infections and 28 deaths.
Before the second wave of the Australian virus – which struck Melbourne in June – the cruise ship had been the source of Australia’s largest coronavirus cluster.
NSW Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said she was sorry for the 62 people who had caught the virus from passengers who had departed.
“I can not imagine what it would be like to have a love – or to be yourself continuing to suffer and experience trauma as a result – and I want to apologize unreservedly,” she said.
What mistakes were made?
After completing an 11-day return cruise to New Zealand, passengers were allowed to leave the ship at Sydney Harbor and catch public transport, and domestic and international flights home.
An investigation report released last Friday found that NSW Health had mischarged the ship as low-risk, and should have tested sick patients immediately.
It was “memorable” that officials failed to get results away from swat tests for coronavirus that were taken on March 19 – the day the ship docked.
However, the question found no systemic failures and said the errors had already been acknowledged by the state government.
Following the ruby of the Ruby Princess, at least a dozen other cruise ships were banned from docking at Australian ports because of their virus risk.
Most of the Australian passengers on the Ruby Princess themselves were isolated at home, in accordance with government instructions for returning passengers.
Apart from a cluster in the island state of Tasmania that is spread by a hospital system, 62 people in Australia were infected by secondary transmissions.
Ms Berejiklian dismissed those cases in her apology, saying, “Unfortunately, especially for those 62 people, the lessons were not learned quickly enough.”
At least a third of the passengers – or about 950 people – were from abroad.
The survey said it could not fully assess how many people had caught the virus because many were unable to test it.
