Ruby Princess inquiry: NSW Health official says passengers let off to catch flights

In heated exchanges, a leading health official defends letting thousands disembark, before COVID testing was completed.

NSW Chief Human Biosecurity Officer, Dr Sean Tobin. Picture: Jane Dempster

A senior NSW Health official has been forced to defend allegations of “serious deficiencies” in the department’s work after conceding that passengers aboard the Ruby Princess were permitted to disembark primarily out of concern that they might miss connecting flights.

Sean Tobin, the state’s Chief Human Biosecurity Officer, told a special commission of inquiry hearing in Sydney on Wednesday that officials erred on the side of letting passengers off the ship — rather than keeping them on-board until COVID-19 testing had been completed — because the testing would take too long and potentially throw their connections into flux.

The inquiry is examining the arrival of the Ruby Princess into Sydney on March 19 and the circumstances that led to its 4,000-odd passengers and crew being dispersed through the community. More than 700 of these people were later diagnosed with COVID-19, and more than 20 died as a result of their infections.

Under questioning that turned heated at times, Dr Tobin defended NSW Health from the inquiry’s commissioner, Bret Walker SC, who took issue with a number of decisions made by expert health officials that seemed to jar with, or fall short of, official policies.

This included the fact that more than 100 passengers had presented to the ship’s medical centre with either acute respiratory infections or symptoms akin to an influenza-like illness, for which COVID-19 testing swabs were supposed to be sent off for testing.

Only 10 swabs were ultimately taken off the ship, prompting a visibly frustrated Mr Walker to query why the ship was allowed to dock in the first place, given that it was not abiding by the protocols. He described this decision as a “seriously deficient piece of public health administration”.

When Dr Tobin replied that it “could have been better”, Mr Walker said: “Doctor, if I may say so, that is bordering on a flippant understatement.”

The Ruby Princess. Picture: Getty

Dr Tobin went on to explain that while the policy called for testing of all patients with acute respiratory symptoms or influenza-like symptoms, the department gave more weight to passengers who fell into the latter category. At the time, far less was known about the novel coronavirus.

But even on this measurement, Mr Walker noted, the number of swabs still fell significantly short, leading to questions around why the ship was not simply held at the port for a few hours longer.

“Why didn’t you just tell them (the ship’s authorities) that we’re just going to have to swab all these people now?” Mr Walker asked.

“It’s possible that some had recovered,” Dr Tobin replied, prompting a rebuke from Mr Walker.

“That’s pure speculation isn’t it?” the commissioner said. “That’s not a serious public health response, is it? It’s possible they hadn’t recovered, correct? And you wouldn’t be able to tell which was which.”

“No,” Dr Tobin conceded.

In a later exchange, Dr Tobin said numerous factors motivated the decision to let the passengers off the ship, namely that it had been graded low-risk by an expert health assessment panel, on which Dr Tobin sat.

A bemused Mr Walker then asked: “What was it that weighed against waiting and seeing?”

“It was the passengers,” said Dr Tobin.

“So they could get home to their beds?”

“To their flights,” Dr Tobin said.