Cordelia Cruise: 139 more passengers test positive for COVID-19 in Mumbai

Mumbai, Jan 5: Another 139 of total 1,827 passengers onboard the Cordelia cruise ship, which has returned from Goa, tested positive for coronavirus infection on Wednesday, said an official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

These 139 patients were in addition to 66 passengers who were found to have contracted COVID-19 earlier. Of the 66, 60 passengers had returned to Mumbai while six had disembarked in Goa. A BMC official said the passengers who tested positive but have no symptoms will be quarantined at home, while the symptomatic ones will be shifted to institutional quarantine.

Earlier, the BMC's executive health officer Dr Mangala Gomare had told PTI that another 143 passengers had tested positive on Wednesday, but late at night the civic body revised this figure to 139. The 60 patients who had tested positive earlier and returned here have been already shifted to various hotels besides the Byculla based Jumbo COVID-19 centre of the BMC and the government-run Saint George Hospital.

The BMC update said that it collected 1,827 samples after the ship docked at the International Cruise Terminal at Ballard Pier in South Mumbai on Tuesday evening. The BMC had appointed two private laboratories for conducting the tests and the samples were collected in two batches till 5.30 am, it said. The passengers whose COVID-19 test came out negative will be allowed to go home, but it will be mandatory for them to stay in home quarantine for seven days. PTI