None has been shifted to jumbo centre at Byculla: Ship with Covid-19 patients on board reaches Mumbai from Goa

The BMC has arranged five ambulances, each of them 17-seater, to ferry coronavirus positive patients to a Covid-19 unit

Patients also have the option of quarantining themselves at hotels at their own expense

https://www.cordeliacruises.com

TT Bureau, PTI  |  Mumbai/Panaji  |  04.01.22 : Around 30 coronavirus patients have disembarked from the Cordelia cruise ship after it arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday evening from Goa, while testing was going on for other passengers on the vessel, civic officials said.

The cruise liner anchored at a passenger terminal in Ballard Pier in South Mumbai at around 6.30 pm and a team of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and police personnel immediate reached the spot to facilitate disembarkment of infected people and coronavirus testing of other passengers.

The BMC has arranged five ambulances, each of them 17-seater, to ferry coronavirus positive patients to a COVID-19 care centre, the officials said.

They also have the option of quarantining themselves at hotels at their own expense, they said.

Earlier, the civic body had said all coronavirus positive people on board the cruise ship will be quarantined in Mumbai, while others will have to undergo RT-PCR tests before disembarking.

A BMC official said around 30 passengers who have already tested positive for Covid -19 have disembarked from the ship till 10 pm and paperwork and other formalities were underway to move them to a medical facility.

However, none of them has been yet shifted to a jumbo Covid -19 centre at Byculla in central Mumbai (where they have to be quarantined) or hotels of their choice, where they will be quarantined at their own expanse, he said.

"Side by side RT-PCR tests of the remaining passengers are being conducted," the official said.

Non-coronavirus passengers will be allowed to disembark from the ship only after their test report shows negative result, but they will have to remain in home isolation for a week, the BMC said earlier in the day.

RT-PCR testing on the ship will be done by two labs and their reports are expected by 9 am on Wednesday, it added.

As many as 66 of the over 2,000 people on board the cruise ship, which came to Goa from Mumbai, had tested positive for COVID-19, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Monday.

The testing of those on board the vessel was necessitated after a crew member was found infected with the coronavirus on Sunday, an official said.

The ship was sent back to Mumbai at 11.30 pm on Monday after 27 passengers, who had tested positive, refused to disembark in Goa, Govind Pernulkar, manager operations, JM Baxi and Co, a local ship agent, told PTI.

The ship had to be sent back after some of the passengers who tested positive refused to get admitted to a COVID-19 facility in Goa. Only six crew members out of the total 66 who had tested positive disembarked in Goa, he said.

Pernulkar said after considering the situation, the South Goa district administration ordered that the ship along with all the passengers be sent back to Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Waterways Leisure Tourism on Tuesday said passengers who boarded Cordelia last Sunday were not only fully vaccinated but had all tested negative in their RT-PCR at the time of boarding.

Besides, all guests who tested positive are asymptomatic, the cruise liner said in a statement, while maintaining that Cordelia Cruise is compliant with all regulations by DG Shipping and follows all COVID protocols. The guests that boarded the cruise last Sunday had all tested negative in their RT-PCR at the time of boarding. They were also fully vaccinated. It is only when one crew member and, that too someone who works at the back of the house, showed mild symptoms on board last Sunday, Jurgen Bailom, CEO and President, Waterways Leisure Tourism said in the statement.

Stating that the particular crew was immediately isolated and all guests and crew had to undergo tests again, he said, the results of those tests showed that a few guests and one crew member on board tested positive.

According to the company, the crew has been fully vaccinated and had undergone RT-PCR tests before they commenced their duties.

The company said ever since its cruise set sail in September 2021 with 1,400 guests on board, all crew members as well as guests have had to undertake RT-PCR test which is no more than 48 hours prior to boarding.

In simple terms, even if one is double vaccinated, one has to undergo the RT-PCR test. Such conditions are more onerous than operation of domestic flights in India, yet we adhere to the same by going above and beyond, said Bailom.

I would also like to bring to light that Cordelia Cruises has had the same crew since September 2021. The crew resides on the cruise. They have never been on land ever since they started work as per the directions of the DG Shipping, he said.

Our cruise and management have not only cooperated wholly with the authorities but also borne every single additional expenditure including testing of all guests, transporting them and so on. It was disheartening to witness lack of empathy on the part of the authorities for neither allowing local residents nor tourists to disembark, Bailom alleged.