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Hundreds of COVID-19 positive passengers disembark Majestic Princess after cruise ship docks in Sydney

Carnival Australia president Marguerite Fitzgerald confirmed 800 COVID cases had been recorded onboard the Majestic Princess, and the majority of infections were among passengers. 

Hundreds of COVID-19 positive travellers are disembarking a cruise ship docked in Sydney this morning, with passengers advised not to catch public transport home. 

The Majestic Princess carried 3,300 guests and 1,300 crew on a 12-day cruise to New Zealand, with at least 20 per cent of passengers contracting COVID-19.

Speaking in Circular Quay where the vessel docked on Saturday morning, Carnival Australia president Marguerite Fitzgerald confirmed 800 COVID cases had been recorded, and the majority of infections were among passengers. 

“We have been proactively preparing for and managing incidences of COVID-19 and working with NSW Health,” she told reporters.

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“We started to see elevated cases about half way through this voyage.”

Ms Fitzgerald said most infected guests had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic and had been isolating in their cabins. 

Passengers who tested negative for the virus were allowed to disembark the cruise ship first, those who tested positive exited on a deck-by-deck basis through a separate door. 

Ms Fitzgerald said COVID positive passengers were advised not to use public transport when they disembark. 

“To help all our guests return home, we are working with all guests who have tested positive for COVID-19 to assist them with accessing private transport and accommodation to complete their isolation period,” she said.

“As they are getting off, they have advised how they will be returning home.”

NSW Health on Friday night ranked the Majestic Princess as a tier three COVID risk level, which indicates a high level of transmission.

All guests onboard were advised to wear masks and were required to take a rapid antigen test in the last 24 hours to determine how they would disembark.

Uninfected guests disembarking the Majestic Princess on Saturday morning told the Daily Telegraph they were satisfied with the precautions taken by the cruise line. 

“We felt safe most of the time … they were cleaning the whole time,” passenger Sharon Leslie told the publication.

Sharon Kluger said the cruise line kept passengers informed as the outbreak worsened. 

“We weren’t worried about COVID, we were just doing our own thing and wearing our masks,” she said.

It comes as Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant warned New South Wales had entered its fourth COVID-19 wave. 

There are currently 974 COVID-19 patients in NSW hospitals including 32 in ICU, while this week cases jumped from 12,450 to 19,800.

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Majestic Princess cruise ship docks with 800 positive Covid cases onboard

A huge cruise ship with hundreds of positive cases on-board is set to disembark in Sydney early this morning.

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A cruise ship with around 800 cases of Covid-19 on board has docked in Sydney on Saturday morning just as the state declares a fourth wave of the virus.

The Majestic Princess pulled into Sydney’s international cruise ship passenger terminal at Circular Quay at around 6am on Saturday.

Video posted to social media captured the moment it pulled into the harbour with passengers clinging to their balcony.

Almost one in four guests on board have now been diagnosed with Covid-19 after a 12-day trip around New Zealand.

Passengers Stephen and Sharon Leslie said while they felt safe onboard the cruise, they were disappointed another outbreak had occurred.

“It’s just disappointing for the cruise industry … and towards the end it did spoil things a bit,” Mrs Leslie told the Daily Telegraph.

Danielle Whitney-Smart was forced to spend the last few days of her first-cruise experience stuck in her cabin.

“It was great but definitely strange by the end,” Ms Smart told the Daily Telegraph.

She said she “couldn’t fault” the cruise company who ramped up cleaning protocols to manage the spread of rising cases.

Ambulance crews were standing by at the overseas passenger terminal as people prepared to disembark the ship.

A Princess Cruises spokesperson confirmed the outbreak and said positive cases were isolating in their rooms this morning.

“These guests are mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic and are isolating in their staterooms. All unimpacted guests are wearing masks and this will continue when they disembark in Sydney on 12 November,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“Reflective of the increase in community transmission, we too have seen more guests test positive for Covid-19 on the current voyage of Majestic Princess.”

The #MajesticPrincess is pulling into Sydney Harbour right now. May it not be a giant superspreader in this stunning city. pic.twitter.com/LWXIv0JvyJ — David Wild (@Wildaboutmusic) November 11, 2022

The outbreak is the single biggest case of cruise ship infections in Australia since the Ruby Princess docked in 2020.

There were 900 covid cases on board that ship and 28 people died during the subsequent outbreak.

NSW Health is liaising with the cruise operator in the wake of the outbreak to “monitor the health of its passengers and crew members”.

“NSW Health’s assessment is that the Covid-19 risk level for the Majestic Princess is now Tier 3, which indicates a high level of transmission,” a spokesman said in a statement.

Private transport has been arranged for guests who have tested positive to travel to isolation.

“Carnival has advised NSW Health that passengers disembarking from the ship have undertaken a rapid antigen test in the 24 hours leading up to disembarkation,” a NSW Health spokesman said.

“Carnival has advised NSW Health that they are assisting passengers with Covid-19 to make safe onward travel arrangements.”

There are currently 4600 people on-board the Majestic Princess – 3300 guests and 1300 crew.

The outbreak comes as its announced that NSW has entered a fourth wave of Covid-19, with chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant saying that current omicron variants circulating in the community are able to escape immunity.

“The wave is taking off with some trajectory, it will be quite a steep wave and hopefully the decline will be equally as steep,” she told ABC.

“That’s why it’s important the community takes these protective measures now and I can’t stress the urgency — if you’re going to get vaccinated do it immediately.”

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clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

A cruise ship with 800 covid cases docks in Sydney

An earlier version of this story said the Ruby Princess cruise ship is owned by Carnival Cruise Line. The ship is owned by the Carnival Corporation. The story has been corrected.

A cruise ship carrying some 800 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus docked in downtown Sydney on Saturday, triggering memories of a deadly ship-related outbreak in Australia’s largest city in the early, pre-vaccine days of the pandemic.

The Majestic Princess, which returned from New Zealand, is carrying more than 4,000 people, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC). Princess Cruises, the cruise line, said in a statement that all guests onboard took a rapid antigen test within 24 hours of disembarking and that passengers who had tested positive would exit separately and not take public transport. Australia no longer requires people who have tested positive for the virus to isolate, though local authorities have issued guidance that covid patients onboard ships should isolate for five days after testing positive.

“Our onboard medical team will continue to support guests until they disembark,” Princess Cruises said in a statement. It did not respond to a question about whether customers who had tested positive could isolate onboard until they recovered, though the company said it would help guests access accommodation for isolation. The Majestic Princess was scheduled to soon sail to Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city.

The health department of New South Wales, the state in which Sydney is located, said in a separate statement that patients had been isolating onboard. State authorities said that there was a “Tier 3” covid risk level aboard the Majestic Princess, indicating a “high level of transmission.”

Cruise ships have been a potent incubator for the coronavirus. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitored such ships for transmission at sea for about two years ; it also warned against cruise travel amid the omicron spike during last year’s holiday season. The CDC still recommends getting vaccinated and taking a coronavirus test before boarding a cruise ship.

In early 2020, Carnival Corporation’s Ruby Princess allowed thousands of passengers to disembark in Sydney, placing the cruise ship at the center of one of Australia’s largest covid outbreaks. At least 28 people died and 700 cases were linked to the ship, according to the ABC . Another Carnival ship, the Diamond Princess , also logged 12 Covid-related fatalities earlier that year, including the first Australian national to die of the virus.

But the country has since lifted coronavirus restrictions on international travel: Proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test are no longer required for entry, and mask-wearing on international flights is encouraged but not mandatory, according to Australia’s Department of Health and Aged Care.

The absence of restrictions is a far cry from how Australia first handled the pandemic. Sydney, the commercial capital, enacted a 106-day lockdown in 2021, while Melbourne endured the world’s longest stay-at-home lockdown. Australia also closed its borders to nearly all international travelers for nearly two years , reopening in February. It deported tennis ace Novak Djokovic for being unvaccinated, preventing him from competing in this year’s Australian Open. The country has one of the lowest covid death rates in the Western world.

One side effect of cruise covid rules: Norovirus has plummeted

Australia’s reopening came after it achieved one of the world’s highest immunization rates. As of Nov. 9, nearly 96 percent of residents older than 16 have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine . The country of 25.7 million people reported a seven-day rolling average of 12 deaths on Friday, or about half that of a month ago.

But New South Wales authorities said this week that the state had entered a new wave of the pandemic, and some medical experts fear that the upcoming holiday season will trigger a spike in infections that could challenge the hospital system in a country that has removed virtually all curbs on the virus.

“If the major public hospitals on the east coast aren’t overwhelmed with patients and facing staff shortages over the holiday break - I’ll donate $1000 to charity,” tweeted physician Steve Robson, president of the Australian Medical Association, in response to news of infections on board the Majestic Princess. (Most of Australia’s population lives on its east coast.)

Katerina Ang contributed to this report.

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Covid-hit Coral Princess cruise ship docks in Sydney

Passengers must record a rapid antigen test before disembarking but crew remain onboard

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A cruise ship with more than 100 Covid-19 positive people onboard has docked in Sydney .

After departing Eden on the New South Wales south coast with more than 2,300 people onboard, the Coral Princess berthed at Circular Quay just before dawn on Wednesday, where it will remain for a day before returning to its home port of Brisbane.

Passengers will have to record a negative result on a rapid antigen test before disembarking but the crew will have to remain.

The outbreak mostly involves infected crew members, with 114 in isolation on Tuesday.

Four passengers were also isolating after positive results, and 24 earlier disembarked in Brisbane , according to Queensland’s chief health officer, John Gerrard.

NSW Health said passengers who tested positive had probably taken the virus onboard with them rather than becoming infected at sea.

The ship docked in Eden on Tuesday, where about 800 passengers disembarked after returning negative tests.

The Eden-Monaro MP and NSW regional development minister, Kristy McBain, said locals had been happy to see the ship dock after bushfires and the pandemic impacted the region.

“When you’ve got towns that rely on tourism it’s been an incredibly difficult couple of years,” McBain told Sydney radio 2GB on Tuesday. “Hopefully this will be the first of many cruise ships to dock this season ... There’s been significant investment into the Port of Eden so that cruise ships could dock in town.”

A Princess Cruises spokesperson said the crew who had tested positive were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.

At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, another Princess cruise liner – the Ruby Princess – was briefly linked to one in eight NSW coronavirus cases.

The latest cruise ship outbreak comes as concern grows about the growing spread of the B.4 and B.5 Omicron subvariants that could reinfect people who have already had the virus.

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The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee has advised shortening the period people are considered immune to the virus to four weeks, requiring people experiencing symptoms more than 28 days after they left isolation to get tested again.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia has criticised the end of free rapid antigen tests for concession card holders and called for the government to extend it beyond July.

“Case numbers and hospitalisations are still rising every single day,” said the society’s president, Fei Sim. “Governments should be encouraging more testing, not less.”

Australia recorded 41,336 new coronavirus cases and 58 related deaths on Tuesday.

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Cruise Ship With 800 Covid-Positive Passengers And Crew Docked In Sydney

After cases soared, a cruise ship with 800 Covid-positive passengers docked in Sydney , Australia.The wave of infections spread around both passengers and crew members on a cruise ship sailing from New Zealand.

The Majestic Princess cruise ship was halfway through a 12- day voyage when the outbreak happened. Cases increasingly spread which led to mass Covid-19 testing for 3,300 passengers on board. Of these passengers, 800 tested positive alongside a few crew members.

According to CNN, the ship had 4,600 passengers and crew on board in total.

Related: Disney Cruise Line Presents Marvel Day At Sea

Cruise ship with 800 Covid-positive passengers docked in Sydney:

The uptick in cases has been linked to the rise of infections in Australia.

In a media briefing, Carnival Australia president Marguerite Fitzgerald told reporters that a large number of the cases were detected at least halfway into the voyage, adding that all cases were either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.

She also highlighted that all guests who tested positive will have help “with accessing private transport and accommodation to complete their isolation period”. Fitzgerald added that Carnival Australia maintains the most stringent of measures to keep all safe onboard, including requiring 95% of guests over the age of 12 to be vaccinated and testing staff and passengers for Covid before they board.

The incident is reminiscent of the outbreak on the ship Ruby Princess, which belongs to the same operator, earlier in the pandemic. When asked about the comparison, the BBC shares that Fitzgerald responded: “Since then, we as a community have learnt a lot, a lot more about Covid.”

According to reports, the Majestic Princess will soon depart for Melbourne.

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Second cruise ship with COVID-19 outbreak docks in Sydney; fourth wave may peak next week

This is your latest weekly update on covid-19 in australia..

The Majestic Princess cruise docked in Sydney on Thursday with positive cases followed by The Celebrity Eclipse on Friday. Both ships have been classified as tier 2, which means they both carried 30-99 COVID-19 positive cases per 1,000 people and their staff was impacted too. (file) Source: AAP / DEAN LEWINS/AAPIMAGE

• Dr Kerry Chant says the number of new cases will start declining from next week in NSW
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Cruise ship docks in Sydney after 800 people on board infected by COVID outbreak

• A cruise ship where 800 people on board have tested positive for COVID has docked in Sydney.
• The president of the cruise operator said cases began to rise halfway through the voyage. 
•  54,661 cases of COVID were reported across Australia in the last week. 

A cruise ship suffering a major COVID outbreak has docked in Sydney, Australia.

The BBC reports that approximately 4,600 passengers and crew were aboard the luxury Majestic Princess, and 800 people were affected by the outbreak of the viral bug. 

President of the cruise operator Carnival Australia Marguerite Fitzgerald told ABC Australia that they began seeing many cases halfway through the 12-day cruise around New Zealand, with all cases either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. 

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She told the news outlet, "Reflective of the increase in community transmissions, we too have seen more guests test positive for COVID-19 on the current voyage of Majestic Princess. This is a result of mass testing of our 3,300 guests."

She added that staff would be assisting all COVID-positive guests "with accessing private transport and accommodation to complete their isolation period," according to ABC. 

One passenger told ABC, per The Guardian: "It was scary because we heard about it, but of course, we tested negative, and the Majestic Princess were really good with the protocols. [We] wore masks for these last seven days, and we were very careful when we went ashore."

Carnival Australia did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

COVID cases are spiking across Australia, with 54,661 cases reported across the country in the last week, said The Guardian.

According to Reuters , Australian authorities have been working to assure the public that this ship outbreak is under control. Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said that authorities had created "regular protocols" since the March-April 2020 Ruby Princess outbreak when hundreds caught COVID-19-linked an Australian cruise around the coast of New Zealand, and 28 people died.

O'Neil told Reuters that the authorities are determining how to get passengers off the Majestic Princess "on a case-by-case basis."

The ship will soon depart for Melbourne, Australia.

Watch: The rise and fall of the cruise industry

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Cruise ship with COVID-19 positive passengers docks in Sydney

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Coral Princess COVID-19 outbreak may foreshadow what happens on land in coming weeks

A COVID-19 outbreak on a sister ship to the Ruby Princess has been called "inevitable" but did not impact the liner's scheduled stop in Sydney today.

Key points:

• The cruise liner has docked in Sydney but most crew members will not be allowed to disembark
• An expert in infectious diseases says the outbreak will be a drop in the ocean compared to wider community transmission
• A passenger isolating on the Coral Princess said Carnival Cruises was handling the outbreak well

The Coral Princess, which arrived in the Harbour City today as part of a 12-day cruise, is battling a COVID-19 outbreak of 115 crew members and 14 passengers, according to Carnival Australia.

Carnival Australia confirmed 10 more passengers had tested positive for COVID-19.

President Marguerite Fitzgerald said 10 passengers who returned positive rapid antigen test (RAT) results before disembarking in Sydney today are isolating on the ship.

"We believe and the health authorities have also said that most of those guests probably brought COVID with them onto the ship when they embarked in Brisbane," she said.

"We knew this was going to happen...no one expected that we'd keep COVID off ships, it was just about managing it."

NSW Health said it was likely the passengers acquired the virus prior to boarding, and all infected travellers and crew were isolating.

Brisbane passenger Liz Bolton and her partner Clive Bolton, who departed the ship this morning, said the health measures in place had been smooth. 

"It's not as bad as people are making it out. We are loving it. We feel really safe," Ms Bolton said. 

"We've had COVID, we've taken all the precautions and we're fine … we just live with it."

Regular cruise passengers Richard and Robin Cooper said they were fully vaccinated and not worried. 

"You're letting people in the country who aren't vaccinated. Everyone on the ship is at least double vaccinated with boosters," Ms Cooper said. 

"We did an anniversary cruise prior to this one...we had no trouble then either."

Despite the strict COVID protocols now enforced on cruises, the virus is still too hard to stop in such settings, says professor of infectious diseases Peter White.

"SARS-CoV-2 is probably the major risk to cruises now … I think we're going to see more of these [outbreaks] unfortunately," Professor White, from the University of NSW, told the ABC.

He said coronavirus would become the new norovirus of cruise ships.

Norovirus is a type of virus that causes gastroenteritis and can spread easily in close quarters, including on cruise ships.

"Around one in 20 cruises would have a norovirus outbreak on them [before the pandemic] but we know that SARS-CoV-2 is probably more transmissible and infectious," he said.

"The inevitable has happened and we've had an outbreak."

Ms Fitzgerald said the low number of passengers infected proved the health measures implemented on board were actually working.

"This is the protocols working. It shows we actually are able to very successfully operate cruises in a COVID environment," she said.

The Coral Princess is in the same family as the Ruby Princess cruise liner which was responsible for Australia's first COVID super-spreader event in March 2020.

However, it is likely this outbreak, which is mostly contained to the crew, will be a drop in the ocean in relation to wider community transmission.

NSW is expecting a COVID-19 peak in the coming weeks as the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 circulate widely.

Professor White said the Coral Princess outbreak was simply foreshadowing what would be seen on land soon.

"We often consider a cruise ship as sentinel surveillance because we start seeing the outbreaks first on the ships," he said.

"That would be playing on my mind if I was going on a cruise and I might try to delay until there's not a wave of outbreaks set to roll in."

NSW Health has assessed the risk level for the Coral Princess outbreak as "amber", which is the second-highest level.

Carnival Australia, which owns Princess Cruises, says the ship is managing "quite well" in the circumstances but there will be some service impacts due to the number of staff isolating.

NSW Health said the crew were not allowed to get off this morning in Sydney and passengers had to take a RAT before disembarking.

Professor White said this outbreak was "particularly interesting" because the virus was most prevalent in the crew.

"I think there is a warning here that extra precautions for crew-based outbreaks … are something the cruise companies should focus on," he said.

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