Gladys apologises ‘unreservedly’ for Ruby Princess

The NSW Premier has apologised “unreservedly” to those who suffered as a result of the bungled disembarking of the Ruby Princess cruise ship.

The NSW Premier has apologised “unreservedly” for the bungled disembarking of the Ruby Princess cruise ship, which has been linked to more than 900 coronavirus infections around the world and 20 Australian deaths.

A report into the disaster was released on Friday that slammed NSW Health for “serious” and “inexcusable” errors in their decision to allow the 2700 passengers on the ship to disembark, despite more than 100 of them displaying symptoms of coronavirus, and three testing positive the next day.

Gladys Berejiklian said she read the report in full over the weekend, and on Monday issued an apology to those affected.

“Can I now apologise unreservedly to anybody who suffered as a result of the mistakes that were outlined in the report, undertaken by individuals within the health department or the health agency,” she said.

“I extend that apology unreservedly in particular to the 62 people who got the virus in a secondary or tertiary way. Those 62 people who weren’t on the ship, but somehow contracted the virus as a consequence of that disembarkation.

“And I want to say I can’t imagine what it would be like having a loved one or being someone yourself who continues to suffer and experience trauma as a result and I want to apologise unreservedly … to anybody who is continuing to suffer or has suffered unimaginable loss because of mistakes that were made within the health agencies.”

NSW Health was slammed in a report into the bungled disembarking of the Ruby Princess cruise ship, which allowed 2700 passengers to enter Sydney and in some cases travel on to other states or countries despite an outbreak of coronavirus on board. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Ms Berejiklian said since the error, “13 or 14” cruise ships were prevented from docking in Sydney.

“The lessons were learnt very quickly, but unfortunately in particular for those 62 individuals, the lessons weren’t learnt soon enough and again I apologise unreservedly on behalf all of those individuals and agencies who made those mistakes,” she said.

The inquiry, established in April under Bret Walker SC, confirmed 663 of the Australian passengers on the ship contracted coronavirus, and 191 crew members also tested positive to the virus.

There were 62 secondary or tertiary cases in Australia that stemmed from the Ruby Princess, and the ship was the likely origin of an outbreak in Tasmania that infected 114 people, the report said.

There were 28 deaths associated with the ship, 20 of them reported in Australia and another eight in the United States.

Mr Walker found the mistake stemmed to a decision to classify the ship as “low risk” on March 18, as it had only travelled between New Zealand and Australia – disregarding that many of the passengers had come from other countries with higher infection rates, and that there was a spike of respiratory illnesses on board.

“In light of all the information the expert panel had, the decision to assess the risk as ‘low risk’ – meaning, in effect, ‘do nothing’ – is as inexplicable as it is unjustifiable,” the report found. “It was a serious mistake.”

A criminal investigation into the Ruby Princess disembarkation is ongoing.