Vasco da Gama cruise passengers demand to be tested, flown home
Irate Australian passengers on the Vasco da Gama will be at sea until Monday after WA Premier Mark McGowan insisted on more quarantine and testing.
Irate Australian passengers on board the cruise ship Vasco da Gama say they want to be tested for coronavirus and flown home as soon as the ship is permitted to dock in Fremantle on Monday.
As concern over cruise-ship contagion escalates, Premier Mark McGowan has refused to let the Vasco da Gama dock on Friday as requested, and says it will not be allowed to enter Fremantle port until Monday to give time for quarantine and testing to occur.
“I will not let a Sydney Harbour fiasco happen in Western Australia,” he said, referring to the high number of COVID-19 cases that came off the Ruby Princess cruise ship.
Vasco da Gama passenger Robyn Whitmore-Rumble told The Australian that a group of passengers had tried to meet with ship staff on Thursday “but the ship is not telling us anything”.
“I want to be tested and I want to be flown home,” she said. “Nobody we are aware of is ill.”
She and her husband, Peter, from Mornington in Victoria, got on the ship on March 7 in Singapore. They only realised the coronavirus crisis had escalated when the ship was denied landing at Phuket, Thailand, and the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, during what was supposed to be a 45-night, northbound voyage to London.
The couple have been at sea without any stops.
“We are furious we were let on the ship, and then they let us float around the ocean for days. It means we haven’t been able to get home,” Mrs Whitmore-Rumble said.
“If we stay on board until Monday we will have not been in contact with anyone outside the ship for two weeks, which is effectively quarantine. We have a clean bill of health.”
Only about 200 West Australian passengers out of 900 Australian and New Zealand nationals on board the Vasco da Gama will be allowed to leave the ship.
However, they will be taken immediately by ferry to quarantine on Rottnest Island, 22km off Perth.
Mr McGowan said all other passengers and crew would be forced to stay on the ship. He was in urgent talks to see if other states would take passengers on a direct flight.
Mrs Whitmore-Rundle says some passengers do not want to end up on Rottnest Island, “because we might be exposed to infection there.”
“Other ships have organised direct flights for their passengers to get home,” she said.
Mrs Whitmore-Rumble said passengers were allowed to freely roam around the ship, and were not isolated in their cabins.
Ship owner Cruise & Maritime Voyages said it had recorded no health concerns among the passengers or crew, who have not left the vessel since March 14.
Some Australian and New Zealanders joined the vessel on March 18 from Columbus, another of the company’s ships. At one stage passengers from Europe were aboard both vessels, but they are now all aboard the Columbus headed for London.
The company said it had spoken to Australian Border Force and passengers would be subjected to “additional, mandatory screening procedures” before they are allowed to get off the ship.
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