Cordelia cruise: 66 COVID positive passengers quarantined in Mumbai; test reports of others awaited

Mumbai, Jan 05: The ship of Cordelia Cruises with 66 Covid-19 positive passengers who returned to Mumbai on Tuesday evening, were moved to either a jumbo centre or hotels, said a civic official. The remaining passengers and crew members were tested on arrival and their reports are expected today.

Around 30 coronavirus patients have disembarked from the Cordelia cruise ship after it arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday evening from Goa, while testing was going on for other passengers on the vessel, civic officials said.

The cruise liner anchored at a passenger terminal in Ballard Pier in South Mumbai at around 6.30 pm and a team of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and police personnel have reached the spot, they said.

The BMC has arranged five ambulances, each of them 17-seater, to ferry coronavirus positive patients to a COVID-19 care centre, the officials said. They also have the option of quarantining themselves at hotels at their own expense, they said.

Earlier, the civic body had said all coronavirus positive people on board the cruise ship will be quarantined in Mumbai, while others will have to undergo RT-PCR tests before disembarking. 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 BMC said.

RT-PCR testing on the ship will be done by two labs and their reports are expected by 9 am on Wednesday, it added.

As many as 66 of the over 2,000 people on board the cruise ship have tested positive for COVID-19, officials have said.

What happens to the passengers who test negative?

So, Non-coronavirus passengers will be allowed to disembark from the ship only after their test report shows a negative result, but they will have to remain in home isolation for a week, the BMC said earlier in the day. RT-PCR testing on the ship will be done by two labs and their reports are expected by 9 am on Wednesday, it added.