Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Monday said that out of the 2,000 samples tested onboard the Cordelia cruise ship that sailed from Mumbai to Goa, 66 passengers tested positive for Covid-19. In a tweet, Rane said, “Out of 2000 samples tested from Cordelia cruise ship, 66 passengers tested positive for Covid-19. Respective collectors and MPT (Mormugao Port Trust) staff have been informed of the same. The authorities will decide whether to allow disembarking of passengers from the ship.”
The ship was initially made to wait at anchorage on Sunday for a few hours as the authorities debated the steps to be followed before asking the ship operators to get all the 2,000 passengers tested.
Cordelia is the same cruise ship that was raided by Narcotics Control Bureau officials last year over an alleged drugs case in which Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, among others, was named.
The state reported four cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus on Monday. “Out of four, one patient is from within the state of Goa, with no travel history, indicating indigenous spread which needs to be further examined,” said the state health minister. The Goa administration is likely to impose a night curfew between 11 pm and 6 am, besides cancelling school for students of Classes VIII to XII. The classes will be taken online.