Coronavirus positive people on board ship to be quarantined in Mumbai

All coronavirus positive people on board the Cordelia cruise ship will be quarantined after the vessel reaches Mumbai from Goa, while others will have to undergo RT-PCR tests before disembarking, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday.

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

A BMC spokesperson said the cruise liner is expected to reach the metropolis at around 6 pm and it will be anchored at a passenger terminal in Ballard Pier in South Mumbai. He said a civic team will screen the travellers. T

he ship has 66 coronavirus positive patients and all of them will be quarantined in Mumbai, while the remaining travellers onboard will be subjected to RT-PCR tests before they disembark, the spokesperson said. For infected passengers, ambulances will be sent to shift them to a jumbo COVID-19 care centre at Byculla in Central Mumbai and they will also have the option of quarantining themselves at hotels at their own expense, he said.

All other passengers will have to stay back on the ship, the official said. "After getting test reports, disembarkment will start. Those testing negative for coronavirus will be stamped for 7 days of home isolation," he said. RT-PCR testing will be done by two labs and their reports are expected by 9 am on Wednesday, he added.

The cruise liner, where the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) busted a high-profile rave party in October last year, was carrying hordes of New Year revellers. 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 (to Mumbai) after some of the passengers who tested positive refused to get admitted to a COVID-19 facility 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. The passengers who were shifted to an isolation facility were brought back to the ship before it sailed to Mumbai, he said.