P&O Cruises’ Pacific Explorer arrive in Sydney with over 100 Covid infections

The Premier would like to see isolation requirements for Covid patients reviewed once the winter case spike subsides. His comments come as a cruise ship carrying more than 100 Covid-positive people docks in Sydney.

Premier Dominic Perrottet would like to see isolation requirements for Covid patients reviewed in spring once the winter case spike subsides.

Mr Perrottet said he had raised the issue with chief health officer Paul Kelly.

“Different months create different pressures. influenza is much, much harsher during the winter months and it’s a much more greater challenges on our hospital system as well,” he said.

“We are going to balance that with workforce, (the) thousands of frontline health workers who are furloughed based on those isolation (requirements).”

The Premier said he wanted support payments to continue until September but the government should rethink its policies for the warmer months.

The Covid-plagued Pacific Explorer docked at White Bay, in Sydney Harbour, early on Monday morning. Picture: John Grainger

“Certainly during the winter months, we need to keep that in place. We need to tailor our settings for the circumstance we find ourselves. Covid is not going away,” he said.

“But we need to make sure that we always adjust our policies.

The Pacific Explorer docking at White Bay. Picture: John Grainger

“As we work through the next couple of months, we need to assess what isolation period suits the circumstances, particularly as we head into spring and summer.”

Mr Perrottet said easing the isolation requirement would help fix workforce shortages, including in healthcare.

“There are many people who are isolating who feel well, including our health staff … if people are well, they should go to work,” he said. “People need to work. Industries need to go back.”

The Premier said he believed the infection control measures for cruise ships were appropriate.

The Pacific Explorer has more than 100 Covid-positive people on board.

“This is the new phase of the pandemic. Where we are living alongside the virus,” he said.

“We have worked very closely with NSW Health (and the) cruising industry … What we are seeing is exactly what we expected to see.”

Mr Perrottet’s comments come after a second cruise ship with a Covid outbreak, in which more than 100 people are Covid-positive, has docked in Sydney and cases are surging across NSW.

Staff on the Pacific Explorer, which has docked at White Bay. Picture: John Grainger

The Pacific Explorer, which has about 2800 crew and passengers on-board, was travelling to Brisbane before the Covid outbreak in which at least 100 people caught the bug.

It comes less than a week after a different ship, the Coral Princess, arrived in Sydney while carrying another 118 Covid-positive people.

Infected passengers on the Pacific Explorer will be transported to their homes if they live close to Sydney, but if they are based further away the ship’s company, P & O Cruises, will put them up in a hotel until their isolation period ends.

NSW Health said there would be no supervision of the passengers sent to hotels as this was not hotel quarantine.

Those who have tested positive on-board the Pacific Explorer have been confined to their rooms. They will receive a refund for days spent in isolation.

“Every time you go into any of those marquees or theatre rooms or in to eat you have to have your mask on … I mean they’re cleaning all the time, sanitising,” passenger Sharon Zahabi told Channel 9.

“We booked knowing that there’s a chance that we could catch Covid and we still came and we will still cruise again as well.”
The ship’s last port of call was Moreton Island.

Originally published as P&O Cruises’ Pacific Explorer arrive in Sydney with over 100 Covid infections