Ship refused in WA after crew tests positive for Covid-19

A foreign grain ship off the coast of Geraldton in Western Australia has reported a case of Covid-19 among its 22 crew members, and the ship will be directed not to berth.

WA Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Getty Images

A foreign grain ship off the coast of Geraldton in Western Australia reported a case of Covid-19 among its 22 crew members, and the ship will be directed not to berth when it arrives in the southern port of Kwinana.

Premier Mark McGowan said the ship docked in Geraldton on Monday morning to allow the very ill crew member to be transported to hospital where he tested positive for Covid-19.

“I am advised he was managed with the appropriate infection prevention and control precautions and I understand he was only attended to by fully vaccinated staff,” he said. The man was due to be evacuated to a hospital in Perth late on Monday.

The ship has since departed for Kwinana but Mr McGowan said he had requested that the ship, the Singaporean-flagged MV Emerald Indah that recently docked in Indonesia, should not be allowed to berth.

The patient will be added to Tuesday’s Covid infection figures, but no new cases were recorded in Western Australia overnight.  Mr McGowan lifted most ­restrictions at midnight on Monday, after last week’s four-day lockdown due to a cluster of community transmissions in Perth’s northern suburbs linked to the Bondi outbreak in Sydney. Six cases have been recorded since June 27. Perth and Peel region residents will no longer have to wear a mask outdoors, but will still wear masks indoors and some restrictions on gatherings will still apply. Private gatherings will be limited to 30 people indoors, and 150 ­people outside.