Coronavirus: NSW top cop in death ship probe as Ruby Princess toll jumps to 7
The Ruby Princess debacle has deepened with two more deaths and leaders accusing the multinational cruise liner of lying.
The horror of the Ruby Princess scandal has escalated, with another two passengers dying after contracting the coronavirus on the ship — the largest source of Australian deaths from the pandemic — and federal and state leaders accusing the multinational cruise operator of lying.
With the death toll from the ship rising to seven, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian instructed her police commissioner to launch an investigation into the tragedy.
The Premier apologised for the fiasco in which almost 3000 travellers from the ship were unleashed without checks on the community as Australian Border Force officers ferried medical staff to the ship off Sydney Harbour to determine the health of crew members aboard.
Having initially blamed Border Force for allowing hundreds of infected passengers off the ship two weeks ago, Ms Berejiklian suggested on Thursday health officials were given incorrect information from the ship’s operator, Carnival Australia.
“I appreciate how upset everybody is. Don’t you think I’m upset? I’ve lived this and breathed this every day of my life,’’ Ms Berejiklian told Sydney’s 2GB radio.
“There were several authorities involved and I’ll be the first one to look someone in the eye if they’ve done the wrong thing and make them accountable.”
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton accused the liner of lying about the health of crew presently on board.
Janet Lieben, a 67-year-old grandmother from the NSW central west, was identified on Thursday as a Ruby Princess COVID-19 death. Her death in Orange Base Hospital was confirmed by former work colleagues on Facebook.
The latest Queensland victim, Des Williams, 85, who died at Toowoomba Hospital on Wednesday, was also a passenger on the Ruby Princess. His death took to seven the number of fatalities linked to the cruise ship, more than a quarter of Australia’s 24 COVID-19 deaths.
Mr Williams was remembered by his family as a gentle giant.
“Des was a beautiful man who saw the best in every person and gave so much of his time to each and every one of us,” relative Jacqui Blackburn wrote on Facebook.
Eight cruise ships, including the Ruby Princess, carrying more than 8000 crew combined, remain stranded off the NSW coast. They are at an impasse with the federal government over whether they will be given permission to dock.
NSW police commissioner Michael Fuller has told The Australian he did not want more than 8000 crew members quarantined in Sydney; aside from the cost, a percentage could develop COVID-19 symptoms and end up depleting the state’s healthcare resources.
Mr Fuller is considering wide-scale medical extractions for any people on the ships requiring treatment for the virus, an operation that is being planned for Monday if the ships still have not left. A letter sent by the ABF commissioner to the cruise ship operators last week stipulated that if its ships did not leave Australia, they could face fines of up to $63,000 and five years’ imprisonment.
The operators have appealed against this decision and are awaiting a verdict.
Mr Dutton, who ordered Thursday’s ABF operation, said it was “clear that some of the companies have been lying about the health of passengers and crew on board”. “I need to get an honest picture of what’s happening,” he said.
ABF officers and specialists from Aspen Medical, a private, independent company, were transported to the ship on Thursday morning to begin testing more than 1000 crew members for their exposure to COVID-19.
The Australian has been told about 200 crew members have presented with a respiratory illness; one of them, a 66-year-old man, was removed during Thursday’s operation to receive medical treatment in a Sydney hospital.
Ms Berejiklian said she had asked Mr Fuller to investigate the information given to NSW health authorities by the Ruby Princess.
“The question remains, and I’ve asked the police commissioner to look into this, what information was provided to health and authorities and why did this occur?” the Premier said.
The saga involving the Ruby Princess began on March 19 when the ship was granted unfettered permission to disembark nearly 2700 passengers. They were free to take any transport they wished to their final destinations. Many were asymptomatic for COVID-19 and ended up interstate and overseas, developing symptoms of the infection over the following days.
The ship accounts for 340 individual cases of coronavirus.
More than 24 hours after passengers aboard the Ruby Princess had dispersed into the community, NSW Health revealed four people aboard had tested positive for COVID-19. In late March, Ms Berejiklian told a partyroom meeting that the ship had provided incorrect information to NSW Health officials. She also blamed ABF for the decision to release passengers.
The next day, ABF Commission Michael Outram focused attention back on NSW Health. He read out a series of emails between the ship’s doctor and NSW Health officials, in which the doctor was seen to have made full disclosures about more than a dozen people on board with flu-like symptoms who had been isolated for the safety of others. Swabs of these people had been taken and were due to be provided to NSW Health on arrival for testing. In the two days leading up to its arrival, an expert committee from NSW Health assessed the details provided by the doctor. They responded by email, that the ship would be graded “low risk”, and that all passengers would be cleared to disembark.
Carnival Australia president Sture Myrmell said it was not safe to sail the ship from Australia while there were ill crew on board.
The only other company involved is Royal Caribbean International, responsible for five of the eight ships off the east coast.
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