Majority of crew on-board ship Ken Hou in Western Australia test positive for Covid-19

The majority of the crew on-board a ship docked in Australia have tested positive for Covid-19, forcing the vessel to stay put.

Twenty of the 22 crew members on-board a cargo ship berthed at Fremantle Port have tested positive for Covid-19.

The crew from the Ken Hou ship were tested on the dock late on Monday after more than half the crew reported symptoms.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan said it was not yet known what would happen with the crew, but his preference was for them to be managed on-board.

“It all depends upon health advice and the condition of the crew, whether they can isolate on-board, whether they’re well enough to run the ship’s systems and the like, so all of that analysis is going on,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan wants the crew to be managed on-board the vessel. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

“We’ve had some experience with these ships before — we’ve had at least five, six, seven maybe over the course of the last 18 months with this issue.

“We’ll continue to manage it in accordance with the very safest of protocols we can possibly put in place.”

The ship was last in port at Si Racha in Thailand on August 7.

Previous ships that have caused similar headaches for the state government include the BBC California and the Darya Krishna.

WA recorded no other cases of Covid-19 overnight.

Police Commissioner Chris Dawson is stepping into a new role. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tony McDonough

Meanwhile, Police Commissioner Chris Dawson has been appointed WA’s “vaccine commander” and will work with health officials as the vaccination program expands to everyone aged over 16.

“The basis of this is so that we have someone in a position of authority who can pull in the resources of the state, even the private sector, from all over WA combined with (WA) Health,” the Premier said.

Mr McGowan noted more than 47 per cent of eligible people had been vaccinated with their first dose so far.

“We need to get that up as quickly as we can, particularly in … Aboriginal communities, regional communities (and) some multicultural communities,” he said.

“We need to work very hard to get as much vaccine as we can out there, and that will be the role of the police commissioner.”

Mr Dawson will still be the state emergency co-ordinator and remains police commissioner, but the day-to-day functions of policing will be taken over by his deputy Col Blanch.

The Premier said Mr Dawson would not have power to mandate vaccinations, which was a responsibility of the chief health officer.

Originally published as Majority of crew on-board ship Ken Hou in Western Australia test positive for Covid-19