CNN
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A cruise ship with hundreds of Covid-positive passengers docked in Sydney, Australia, after suffering a wave of infections.
The Majestic Princess cruise ship was halfway through a 12-day voyage, Carnival Australia president Marguerite Fitzgerald told reporters at a media briefing on Saturday.
According to CNN affiliate Nine News, there were 4,600 passengers and crew on board at the time.
After the Fitzgerald mass tested 3,300 passengers, about 800 tested positive for Covid-19, as did a small number of crew.
“All positive cases were mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and those guests were isolated in their staterooms and then separated from unaffected guests,” Briana Latter, a spokeswoman for parent company Princess Cruises, told CNN.
Cruise operators escorted infected individuals off the ship separately and advised them to complete a five-day isolation period, CNN affiliate Nine News informed.
Those who tested negative were allowed to abandon ship at New South Wales Health statement to read
“Carnival has advised NSW Health that they are assisting passengers with Covid-19 to make safe on-boarding arrangements,” he said.
The latter said the incident on the Majestic Princess “reflects the rise of community transmission in Australia”.
Australia The recent increase in Covid cases has led to more caution within the government.
The New South Wales Department of Health has recorded 19,800 new Covid-19 cases and 22 deaths in the past week.
The Majestic Princess cruise ship has since departed Sydney on its next voyage to Melbourne and Tasmania.
In a statement later, Fitzgerald said Carnival Australia had more than 50 international and domestic cruises “with the vast majority of more than 100,000 guests unaffected by Covid”.
“But the emergence of Covid in the community means we’ve seen an increase in positive cases over the last three trips,” he said.
Fitzgerald said the company was taking “the most serious and rigorous measures far above existing guidelines”, including requiring 95% of guests aged 12 and over to be vaccinated and requiring staff and passengers to be tested for Covid before boarding.
“We take our responsibility to ensure everyone’s safety very seriously. This applies not only to our guests, but also to the wider community in which we operate and visit,” said Fitzgerald.
Majestic Princess is not the first Carnival cruise to be hit by the Covid outbreak.
At least three other ships in the company’s Princess fleet – Ruby Princess, Diamond Princessand Grand Princess—earlier outbreaks in the pandemic.
