Key Points
- A cruise ship carrying people infected with COVID-19 is expected to dock in NSW twice this week.
- Passengers on board will be required to return a negative rapid antigen test result before disembarking.
Passengers on board a COVID-hit cruise ship currently in NSW will be required to return a negative rapid antigen test result before disembarking, NSW Health says.
The Coral Princess — the sister ship of in the early days of the pandemic — docked in Eden on NSW's South Coast on Tuesday afternoon.
The ship has 118 confirmed cases on board, with the majority (114) being crew members. It will reach Sydney on Wednesday, where it will remain for one day before returning to Brisbane.
The Coral Princess was the first to make Brisbane's International Cruise Terminal its home port last month, and 24 infected passengers disembarked in Brisbane earlier this week.
NSW Health said it was liaising with the Coral Princess to monitor the health of the crew and passengers.
"While a small number of passengers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since boarding the Coral Princess, their infections were most likely acquired prior to boarding and they subsequently tested positive," a NSW Health spokesperson said in a statement.
The Coral Princess is the sister ship of the Ruby Princess, which was linked to hundreds of COVID-19 cases in the early days of the pandemic. Credit: NSW Port Authority
"No crew members will disembark and all passengers disembarking will be requested to return a negative RAT result first," the NSW Health spokesperson said.
A Princess Cruises spokesman said on Tuesday that positive cases were detected in crew members through regular surveillance testing, in line with the protocols to resume cruising in May, which also require crew members to be vaccinated.
A recent full-screening detected further cases.
"These crew members are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms," the spokesman said.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said he had received advice about the ship's journey but the situation was still developing.
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the outbreak may deter some people from cruise holidays, but governments had been clear about how COVID-19 was being managed in the community.
"The health response now is quite different to what it was at other stages of the pandemic," he told reporters on Tuesday.
The Coral Princess came into NSW as the state revised the COVID-19 reinfection period to a third of its length.
People who have been will now need to re-test if they experience symptoms after 28 days since they exited isolation.
That period is down from 12 weeks, following advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee after the emergence of Omicron sub-variants, which are circulating widely in NSW.
"They are more able to evade immunity gained from previous infection and vaccination reinfection is more likely and possible just weeks after a prior infection," NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said on Tuesday.
Additional booster shots are available for people over 30 ahead of an expected peak in cases throughout winter.
Dr Chant recommended people at high risk of serious infection speak to their doctor about accessing antiviral medications which can reduce the severity of COVID-19.
"Antivirals work best when taken at the beginning of a COVID infection, so it is really important that if you are at high risk, you plan ahead," she said.
