Revealed: Ruby Princess told officials of COVID-19 illnesses

NSW health officials did not board the Ruby Princess to test for COVID-19 even though the onboard doctor told them there were sick passengers.

Passengers stuck on the Ruby Princess fill in their days on the balconies of the ship. Picture: Simon Bullard

NSW health officials did not board the Ruby Princess to test passengers for COVID-19 even though the cruise liner’s on-board doctor told them explicitly in emails there were sick travellers on the ship.

Explosive emails obtained by The Weekend Australian show NSW Health officials dismissed any concern about the health of passengers aboard what is now the nation’s biggest source of COVID-19 infection and told the ship it was “free to disembark” without further tests. The extraordinary revelations contradict NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s assertions Australian Border Force officials were to blame for the debacle, and raise ­serious questions about her handling of the fiasco.

The emails confirm ABF commissioner Michael Outram’s statement last month that NSW Health officials declined to board the ship and gave it the all-clear despite being told about passengers with flu symptoms.

The Ruby Princess is the source for one in 10 of all coronavirus ­infections across Australia, including seven dead. The emails reveal NSW Health officials knew of the coronavirus risk but allowed 2700 people to stream off the boat and leave Sydney for all parts of the country.

The day before arriving in Sydney the ship’s doctor told NSW Health two passengers were suffering respiratory infections, and needed immediate transfer to hospital, and others were sick but had tested negative for influenza. Without examining any of the passengers, NSW Health gave the all-clear, telling the ship’s doctor to send through more than a dozen viral swabs so they could be tested, but made no effort to stop anyone leaving the ship.

Ms Berejiklian on Thursday ­ordered NSW Police Commissioner Michael Fuller to investigate the matter, but implied the cruise ship misled health officials about the condition of the ­passengers.

The emails dispute that version. “Please be aware, we have collected viral swabs for a few cases of ‘febrile, Influenza test negative’ individuals, and have kept the guests isolated,” an email from the Ruby Princess doctor to NSW Health said. “Please advise on how to proceed on these guests, and whether you will be processing these tests tomorrow.”

In reply, NSW Health said an expert panel had assessed the Ruby Princess “as not requiring on-board health assessment in ­Sydney”. “We would, however, ask you to send the 15 samples to our lab for COVID testing … You are free to disembark tomorrow, however according to the new Australian government guidance, all passengers must go into self-isolation for 14 days,” the email said.

 

Ms Berejiklian, asked on Thursday if the ship might have misled health officials, told 2GB: “That is ­absolutely, potentially the case.’’

The Australian has previously revealed that the Premier has made similar remarks to her partyroom, as well as blaming ABF officials for the decision to allow all passengers on board the ship to disembark.

But on Friday she said: “I don’t think it helps to point fingers and play the blame game … it’s unfair to blame anyone.”

After the ship’s March 19 ­arrival, tests were conducted on 13 swabs taken from passengers, four of which showed up positive for COVID-19 more than 24 hours later. By then, passengers had dispersed across the country, and in some cases returned to their homes overseas. Eleven others have since ­contracted the virus as a result of contact with Ruby Princess passengers; at least six are known to be close contacts or ­family members.

In a series of disclosures ­released on Friday night, NSW Health said the ship was cleared to dock in large part because it contained a number of passengers sick with influenza, but not enough to meet the threshold required for an “outbreak”.

A second reason was that the ship had come from New Zealand, a low-risk country, where testing of five passengers for COVID-19 in the days before its arrival on March 19 had returned negative results. A third reason was that a large proportion of its nearly 2700 passengers were testing positive for the flu.

NSW Health said keeping the passengers on board in a quarantine-style situation would have ­resulted in a rapid spread of the coronavirus and potentially harmed more people.

It said at the time the ship’s doctor had confirmed influenza had been circulating on the ship, and so there was no reason to believe COVID-19 was present.

“Self-isolation at home is a much safer option than leaving passengers on board,” the statement said.

Six 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.

The Ruby Princess off the NSW south coast. Picture: Simon Bullard

Mr Fuller has said he did not want crew members quarantined in Sydney because a COVID-19 ­infection among them could overwhelm the state’s healthcare system.

Carnival Australia, the owner of the Ruby Princess, sent a series of email correspondence and biosecurity documents directly to the Premier on Friday to prove that ­officials were warned in advance about unwell passengers.

The correspondence included the email from the ship’s doctor ­directly to NSW Health ­drawing attention to the fact that 15 unwell passengers remained isolated.

Swabs of the passengers had been taken for COVID-19 testing, though this was unable to be conducted on the ship. While in New Zealand, the ship had sent swabs from five passengers to be tested for COVID-19; these were negative for the virus. The doctor also drew attention in his email correspondence to two sick passengers who needed an ambulance transfer on arrival in Sydney.

Both were suffering from a respiratory infection, but had tested negative for influenza. NSW Health said it was led to believe there were high numbers of people sick with the flu on board because rapid influenza tests sometimes “return a negative result even though they are infected”.

In the case of the two passengers, NSW Health said: “Although they had tested negative to influenza, the cause of their respiratory infection was consistent with influenza for which they were ­receiving treatment.”

The ship’s doctor said they ­required an ambulance transfer for a heart condition “likely caused by an infection” in one patient, and “severe lower back pain” in the second who was “also receiving treatment for the flu”.

One has since died from COVID-19.

A state government official said the NSW Health expert panel made the decision to grant the ship entry into Sydney.

The expert panel is comprised of four people, all of whom have between 10 and 30 years of experience in public health matters; one is a consultant in communicable diseases.

The government official said the panel had assessed more than 60 ships before the arrival of the Ruby Princess, all of which had been successfully graded and treated in excess of national guidelines set by the federal government.

These guidelines, set by the ­federal Department of Health, state that if there are “no concerns about the COVID-19 risk profile of the ship or suspected COVID-19 cases reported … the ship may be allowed to continue voyage while samples are tested”.

The state government official said: “They didn’t get it wrong in the previous 63 ships, so the question then hangs: why is there any suggestion they would have got this wrong if they didn’t have the appropriate information?”