The Cordelia cruise liner, which was anchored off Mormugao in Goa, after as many as 66 of the 2,000-odd passengers tested positive for Covid-19, has been sent back and reached Mumbai cruise terminal on Tuesday evening. However, as per BMC orders, nobody is being allowed to disembark.
All the 60 positive patients were taken out through a separate exit way at the Green Gate port after the cruise liner's arrival.
According to officials, the decision to send the ship back was taken after a few of the infected persons refused to get admitted to a medical facility in Goa. Officials said that 60 confirmed cases remained on board after six patients had disembarked in Goa.
The BMC had sent five ambulances, each a 17-seater, to shift those who had tested positive, to either the Richardson and Cruddas covid care isolation facility in Byculla or paid quarantine facilities, as per their choice.
All the other passengers were to stay back on the cruise liner and an RT-PCR test of each one of them was to be conducted. The reports of the same are expected on Wednesday at 9 am. "Only once the reports arrive, the passengers with negative reports will be allowed to disembark. Nonetheless, even those negative will be stamped for seven-day home isolation before being allowed to leave," said a senior BMC official.
According to one of the passengers, a few positive covid patients were seen roaming freely in the lobby and the cruise management did not restrict their movement on the ship; the passenger stated that she had reported this to the BMC screening team on arrival.
"We will verify the complaint and take necessary action; however, for now, our priority is to isolate those who have tested positive and test the rest. We hope that the remaining will test negative; but, we will know only after the test results are out on Wednesday morning" said a BMC official.
Jurgen Bailom, CEO and president, Waterways Leisure Tourism Pvt Ltd, in a press statement stated: "All guests who have tested positive are asymptomatic. I would also like to highlight that it was Cordelia Cruises’ exemplary proactiveness in not only conducting the rapid antigen test but also, very responsibly informing the concerned authorities of the incident. One may hence mindfully arrive at the conjecture that the guests who have tested positive as of this morning were already infected with the virus prior to boarding. However, their tests showed otherwise; hence they were permitted on board. We are aware of several similar incidents on flights and trains. These are unfortunate and unexpected despite everyone taking the utmost care."
