Coronavirus: Ruby Princess cruise ship allowed to dock in Sydney despite 158 sick on board

A cruise ship that arrived in Sydney with four confirmed cases of COVID-19 had previously been allowed to dock with 158 sick passengers on board, despite the captain claiming no one was ill.

Cruise ship passengers disembark from the Princess Cruises owned Ruby Princess at Circular Quay in Sydney on March 19. Picture: AAP

• Sydney port officials told there was no one sick on Ruby Princess cruise ship despite 158 passengers reporting ill

• Sick passengers allowed to disembark and potentially spread infection throughout state capital

• At least four passengers tested positive after ship docked in Sydney Harbour

• 2700 new passengers boarded ship following outbreak onboard cruise liner amid accusations of negligence

• Two more COVID-19 cases in the NT traced to Ruby Princess

A cruise ship that docked in Sydney with four confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday had previously been sailing with 158 sick passengers on board — including 13 with high temperatures — who disembarked at Circular Quay before the vessel left for New Zealand with nearly 4,000 on board.

The Ruby Princess returned to Sydney 11 days later — on Thursday, March 19 — with four confirmed cases of coronavirus; health officials are now urgently trying to track down passengers who were allowed to disperse into the community.

Two more confirmed cases in the Northern Territory have been traced to passengers from the Ruby Princess.

The infections were found in a couple who disembarked from the Ruby Princess cruise ship and then flew to the Top End capital, before testing positive for COVID-19 on Saturday.

Questions are now being raised over why the Ruby Princess was permitted to leave Sydney for New Zealand without undergoing quarantining or disinfection — it was carrying 2,700 new passengers and 1,100 crew members when it set sail, just hours after 158 sick people disembarked the ship.

The Ruby Princess. Picture: Supplied

Further concerns are being raised over the conduct of the Ruby Princess’s master. An email sent by the Port Authority of NSW, and obtained by The Weekend Australian, revealed that when the Ruby Princess arrived in Sydney on March 8 its captain told NSW Vessel Traffic Services there were “no ill passengers or crew on board”.

This is despite the ship logging its 158 unwell passengers through the Federal Government’s biosecurity management portal, known as MARS, or the Maritime Arrivals Reporting Systems. Breaching the MARS is an offence under the Biosecurity Act, according to its website.

Nine tests were subsequently conducted on the sick passengers for COVID-19, all of which returned a negative result. The illness is known to be asymptomatic or mild in some people, who can transmit the infection to those around them.

“Our great concern in this situation is that we placed a pilot on board the vessel without being able to provide him with advice about the potential for COVID-19 cases,” the email, dated March 13, and signed by a Port Authority General Manager, stated. “Further, it raised concerns about whether we can, in general, rely on the declaration from the Master of the vessel.”

A review is underway into the discrepancy between what was reported about the unwell passengers to authorities. The review is being conducted by the ship’s owner.

“We are still to receive a response,” the Port Authority email said.

Comment has been sought from the ship’s operator, Princess Cruises. A spokesman for the ship’s owner, Carnival Cruise Line, said the captain disclosed the ship’s knowledge of the sick patients in the “normal and effective way” and disputed that anything had been withheld from authorities.

“The ship followed maritime health protocols in relation to disclosure of guest and crew health experience. As a result of this adherence to the protocol, NSW Health responded and conducted screenings that subsequently confirmed there was no case of COVID-19,” the spokesman said.

A NSW Health spokesman, responding on behalf of the NSW government, said the ship had arrived in Sydney at a time when stringent restrictions on travellers — such as those from China and Iran — were yet to be enacted.

“NSW Health met the ship on March 8, conducted an on-board assessment for Influenza and COVID-19 on more than 360 people who identified as feeling unwell or who presented a recognisable risk through their travel history at the time,” the spokesman said.

“Nine people who showed potential COVID-19 symptoms were isolated, tested for COVID-19, and these tests were negative.”

The spokesman said no one who disembarked from that voyage has since been identified as positive for COVID-19 within NSW, and that there was no evidence of Coronavirus on the ship when it then set sail for New Zealand that day.

“Additionally, there is no intelligence of COVID-19 confirmed in any of these passengers within Australia or overseas.”

Questions regarding the conduct of the ship’s captain, and whether or not the ship should have been allowed to sail again that day, were not answered.

NSW Labor Deputy Leader Yasmin Catley said the NSW Port Authority should have unequivocally prevented the Ruby Princess from disembarking on March 8 when it knew sick passengers had been on board the ship.

“They have been negligent in their actions,” Ms Catley said. “This is a massive failure of the regulator, a direct example of governments working in silos, and not sharing critical information for the safety and protection for the citizens of this state.”

The Australian has been told that when the ship arrived back in Sydney on Thursday with its confirmed cases of COVID-19, it was processed at the Overseas Passenger Terminal at 2:29am rather than the usual time of sunrise, which is when ships normally arrive in the harbour.

Ms Catley said this raised questions around the intention of NSW Health authorities and others involved in the processing of passengers, and whether this was done deliberately under the cover of darkness.

NSW Health on Friday stated that the confirmed cases of coronavirus were only discovered later that morning, after the passengers had disembarked from the ship.

“It would appear that there is a shroud of secrecy over this vessel docking because we know there were ambulances waiting to transport unwell passengers directly to hospital,” she said.

“It beggars belief why that vessel was allowed to sail on the 8th, but it’s even further and greater concern that those passengers who returned on Thursday the 19th in the cloak of darkness, at 2:29am, were then allowed to disembark that vessel, because the government considered it a low risk.”