A cruise ship with hundreds of passengers positive for Covid has docked in Sydney, Australia, after a wave of infections.
The Majestic Princess cruise ship was about halfway through a 12-day voyage when an outbreak of cases was noticed, Carnival Australia president Margaret Fitzgerald told reporters at a news conference on Saturday.
The ship had 4,600 passengers and crew at the time, according to CNN affiliate Nine News.
After mass testing of 3,300 passengers, about 800 tested positive for Covid-19, as did a small number of crew, Fitzgerald said.
“All of the positive cases were mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and those guests were isolated in their cabins and then separated from unaffected guests,” a spokeswoman for parent company Princess Cruises, Briana Latter, told CNN.
Cruise operators separately escorted those infected off the ship and advised them to complete a five-day isolation period, CNN affiliate Nine News reported.
Those who tested negative were allowed to leave the ship, New South Wales Health said in a statement.
“Carnival has advised NSW Health that it is assisting passengers with Covid-19 to make safe travel arrangements,” the statement added.
The latter said the outbreak on the Majestic Princess “reflected an increase in community transmission in Australia”.
Australia has seen an uptick in Covid cases recently, leading to increased attention from the government.
The New South Wales Department of Health recorded 19,800 new cases of Covid-19 and 22 deaths last week.
The Majestic Princess cruise ship has departed Sydney on its next voyage to Melbourne and Tasmania.
In a later statement, Fitzgerald said Carnival Australia has run more than 50 international and domestic voyages “with the vast majority of more than 100,000 guests unaffected by Covid”. positive cases in the last three trips,” he said.
Fitzgerald said the company is implementing “the strictest and most rigorous measures that go far beyond current guidelines,” including requiring 95% of guests over the age of 12 to be vaccinated and testing staff and passengers for Covid before they board.
“We take our responsibility to keep everyone safe very seriously. This extends not only to the care of our guests, but also to the wider community in which we operate and visit,” said Fitzgerald.
The Majestic Princess is not the first Carnival cruise to be hit by a Covid outbreak.
At least three other ships in the company’s Princess fleet – Ruby Princess, Diamond Princess and Grand Princess – experienced outbreaks earlier in the pandemic.
