The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday said that they would not allow anyone to disembark from the Mumbai-Goa Cordelia cruise ship wherein 66 on board have tested positive for Covid-19 so far. Officials said that there were 60 confirmed cases on board as six patients had disembarked in Goa. The cruise ship had 1,400 odd persons on board and was sent back to Mumbai at 11.30 pm on Monday from the Mormugao cruise terminal in Goa. It reached Mumbai around 6.30pm on Tuesday.
The civic body said that for all the positive patients, an ambulance will be sent to green gate to shift them to either BMC’s Richardson and Cruddas in Byculla or paid quarantine facilities as per their choice. All the other passengers will stay back on the cruise and an RT-PCR of them would be done by two laboratories. The reports of the same are expected on Wednesday at 9am. “Only once the reports are given will disembarking be done of negative patients. Those negative will be stamped for seven day home isolation,” said an official.
Jurgen Bailom, CEO and president, Waterways Leisure Tourism Pvt Ltd, in a press statement said, “All guests who have tested positive are asymptomatic. I would also like to highlight that it was Cordelia Cruises’ exemplary proactiveness in not only conducting the rapid antigen test but also, very responsibly informing the concerned authorities of the incident. One may hence mindfully arrive at the conjecture that the guests who have tested positive as of this morning were already infected with the virus prior to boarding. However, their tests showed otherwise hence they were permitted on board. We are aware of several similar incidents on flights and trains. These are unfortunate and unexpected despite everyone taking utmost care.”
The ship was sent back to Mumbai—from where it had set sail for a New Year party—at 11.30 pm yesterday after 27 positive passengers refused to leave the cruise ship, shipping firm JM Baxi and Co operations manager Govind Pernulkar said.
Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane had on Monday said that out of the 2,000 samples tested onboard the Cordelia cruise ship, 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 staff have been informed of the same. The authorities will decide whether to allow disembarking of passengers from the ship.”