NSW Health’s big failure on Ruby Princess risk data

NSW Health authorities failed to revise their ‘low risk’ assessment of the Ruby Princess as the troubled cruise ship docked in Sydney.

Carnival agent Dabrila Tokovic leaves the inquiry. Picture: Britta Campion

NSW Health authorities failed to revise their “low risk” assessment of the Ruby Princess as the troubled cruise ship docked in Sydney despite having access to updated data detailing a spike in passengers reporting flu-like symptoms.

Lawyers for Carnival Australia, which owns the luxury vessel, told a special commission of inquiry in Sydney on Wednesday that the vessel filed multiple human health reports through the federal government’s online biosecurity portal.

This was accessible to numerous government agencies, including NSW Health. The last of these reports, filed on the evening of March 18 just hours before the ship docked, stated that 128 passengers were ill and 24 had symptoms of fever, the inquiry heard.

The revelation jars against previou­s evidence heard by the inquiry­ that NSW Health officials who assessed the ship as low-risk had done so using outdated numbers provided by the ship, and that if up-to-date figures had been provided­, this risk assessment may have been raised and triggered multiple screening procedures.

The low-risk rating allowed 2700 passengers to be released into the community without con­trols­, screening or health advice­ about the risk of COVID-19 contagion they might pose to friends and loved ones. The ship would go on to become the largest single cluster of novel coronavirus outbreak nationally, with the highest number of attributable deaths.

The inquiry previously heard that the Ruby Princess filed its patient­ log of passengers with acute respiratory infections and influenza-like illnesses at 9.39am on March 18, a day before the ship docked at Circular Quay. This was the patient log used by a NSW Health expert panel to grade the ship low-risk for COVID-19.

The list contained the names of 104 patients, 17 of whom were displaying symptoms of fever. An updated­ log, provided after the ship arrived due to an oversight onboard, contained the names of 124 patients, 24 of whom were showing fever symptoms. The inquiry­ is yet to unpack why there is a discrepancy from the numbers filed the night before.

These updated numbers, when combined with other respiratory illnesses reported, would have influence­d the outcome of the risk assessment and most likely raised the risk rating to “medium”, the inquiry­ has heard.

Commissioner Bret Walker SC. Picture: Britta Campion

But David McClure SC, representing the owners of the Ruby Princess, said multiple human health reports were submitted by the ship and specified that the number of unwell passengers had been updated, and NSW Health would have had access to this data.

NSW Health said it would not comment while the inquiry was ongoing. So far just one NSW Health official has given evidence at the public hearings, with others tentatively scheduled to do so.

On Tuesday, senior epidemiologist Kelly-Anne Ressler tearfully conceded that national protocols were not followed prescriptively enough in the department’s ­dealings with the Ruby Princess and other ships.

Duty harbour master Cameron Butchart.

Her distress garnered the attenti­on of Scott Morrison, who criticised the line of questioning on Wednesday as “aggressive” and “out of line” and said the inquiry’s commissioner, Bret Walker SC, needed to “reflect on that”.

Asked whether Mr Walker wished to respond to those ­remarks, an inquiry spokeswoman said: “The commissioner does not intend to make any comment.”

Evidence was taken from six witnesses on Wednesday, among them officials from NSW Ambulance, the Port Authority of NSW, and Carnival Australia. Much of the day was devoted to the circumstances around the ship’s arrival and request for two passengers to be given an ambulance transfer.