Coronavirus: Police launch investigation as 600 cruise passengers test positive after disembarking
A criminal investigation into the docking of a cruise ship is being launched by police in Australia after 600 passengers who disembarked later tested positive for coronavirus.
Carnival’s Ruby Princess cruise liner docked in Sydney on 19 March with 2,700 holidaymakers and 1,400 crew onboard.
Some 200 crew members also displayed symptoms of Covid-19.
The police probe will look at whether national biosecurity laws were broken in allowing passengers to disembark from the ship, when so many were showing symptoms of the virus.
“The only way I can get to the bottom of whether our national biosecurity laws and our state laws were broken is through a criminal investigation,” said New South Wales police commissioner Mick Fuller at a press conference.
He added that ships are permitted to dock only if the captain can assure the authorities that those onboard are not carrying a contagious disease.
The actions of the port authority, ambulance service, police, NSW Health and Carnival Australia, the cruise company that own the Ruby Princess, will all come under scrutiny as part of the investigation.
So far, 11 passengers from the Ruby Princess have died, accounting for more than a third of all coronavirus-related deaths in Australia at the time of writing.
Passengers weren’t tested onboard, but were found to have Covid-19 after having already disembarked in Australia.
Carnival Australia is fully cooperating with the investigation, according to police.
It follows the stories of a number of cruise ships that struggled to find places to dock amid the coronavirus pandemic.
One such vessel, the Zaandam, was finally allowed to dock in Florida last week after being stuck at sea for three weeks.
President Trump overruled the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who initially denied permission for Zaandam to end her long voyage at her home port of Fort Lauderdale.
The Holland America Line vessel, with 229 British passengers on board, left Punta Arenas on the southern tip of Chile on 12 March. She had not been able to disembark passengers at any port since then, despite repeated attempts.
Four passengers died from Covid-19 onboard in that time, while others became critically ill.
