Federal officials will face tough questioning today
over a cruise ship scandal that fueled Australia's crisis.
More than 2,500 passengers were allowed to disembark the Ruby Princess
without being tested.
This report has cleared Princess Cruises in any wrongdoing.
But how on earth was this allowed to happen?
Well ahoy there cruisers. We're cruise with Ben and David.
I'm Ben, David's currently on a cruise...
Not really he's just next door working.
So, let's go back to march the 8th when Ruby Princess was calling
at Sydney as a port of call.
The New South Wales Ministry of Health
assessed the coronavirus status as a medium risk.
Now this is based on the fact that there were 170 recorded cases of acute respiratory illnesses
on board the ship.
The inspection team conducted an onboard screening upon the ship's arrival.
With 366 people coming forward to give themselves up for examination.
Four passengers were examined and selected for testing based on their symptoms.
And none of them tested positive so the ship was then all cleared to sail again.
On March 15th the Ruby Princess altered course to return back to Sydney.
As a consequence of Australia's newly enacted cruising ban.
It was now 11 days into a cruise around New Zealand.
But it was cut short due to the new rules.
On March 17th, the day before it docked back in sydney, the ship's doctor contacted officials.
She was in email contact with NSW Health.
Outlining concerns over 110 sick passengers on board.
Among these sick passengers were 17 with temperatures over 38°C
and six who had muscle aches, diarrhea, severe vomiting and headaches.
All common symptoms.
The captain had also informed the port of these cases before arriving.
And at first the ship was denied to dock at Sydney port.
But leaked phone calls allegedly revealed
port authorities backflipped on the decision and allowed the Ruby Princess to dock.
And once the ship had arrived at Sydney Harbour, over 2,500 passengers were allowed to disembark.
Including catching public transport, take domestic flights and even overseas flights home.
None of these passengers were detained or screened in any way.
Despite suspected cases on board.
None of the passengers were informed by authorities that there had been suspected outbreaks on the cruise.
Which is pretty shocking.
Most of the passengers traveled home completely unaware.
As we said, taking flights internal and international
as well as traveling by train and throughout the very busy city of Sydney.
After the ship had docked 13 test swabs that the ship's doctor had taken whilst underway
was sent to a lab for testing.
But the samples were not marked as high priority.
As the ship was still considered as low risk.
The tests were not processed until a few days later on either March 19th or March 20th.
Officials then revealed cases had been confirmed in three people who had been on board.
Two passengers as well as a crew member.
So obviously this prompted a scramble to track down everybody else who had been on board.
Because of how authorities dealt with the outbreak
it led to 28 deaths and more than 1,000 infections across the country and the world.
So after all of these passengers had disembarked the ship then moved to Port Kembla.
Questions remained over who was responsible for the Ruby Princess fiasco.
At first the blame was placed on the captain and the company for giving misleading information.
So this is really shocking claims.
An investigation was carried out.
Including police raiding the ship, seizing the ship's black box and questioning of the crew.
The police said that the captain of the ship and the crew were extremely helpful.
And Princess fully complied with every angle of the investigation.
There were still over a 1,000 crew members on board.
Of which the police said the majority wanted to stay on board.
As they felt safe on the ship.
Princess and the captain followed regulations perfectly.
Passing on all known information to authorities before docking.
Australian Border Force and the Port Authority of New South Wales
knew about the outbreak but astonishingly still cleared the ship to dock
and allow passengers to disembark.
This is just absolutely crazy isn't it.
How would you allow that?
Over 170 passengers showing symptoms of the virus
and suddenly they flip and just allow them to disembark without checking anybody.
And those tests which were delayed.
They were vital in finding out whether or not had developed on board.
So what was the outcome of this investigation?
Well the police inquiry into the Ruby Princess
has blamed state health authorities for inexcusable mistakes.
For some reason officials allowed the ship to disembark even though they knew the risk of the virus.
The inquiry concluded that the panel's low risk assessment was a serious and material error.
Leading to uncontrolled release of positive passengers.
The authorities had declared the ship to be low risk.
But the inquiry found that they should have tested all the passengers immediately.
It also said the delay of the ship's tests being processed is inexcusable.
As it delayed the public health response measures that followed.
The New South Wales Premier said: "Monumental mistakes were made.
"Can I now apologize unreservedly to anybody who suffered as a result of the mistakes
"that were outlined in the report undertaken by individuals within the health department.
"Not only have lessons been learned but clearly those circumstances should and will never
happen again in New South Wales"
Som, really tough words there.
Senior officials from Australia's Border Force and agricultural department,
which had staff on board the cruise liner,
are expected to face tough questions from lawmakers in Canberra today.
So the good news with this is that the investigation determined that the public health agencies
of the government of New South Wales
bear primary responsibility for allowing hundreds of positive passengers
to disembark the ship and then travel onwards.
It broadly exonerated Princess Cruises and the captain of the Ruby Princess of any wrongdoing.
So they did nothing wrong.
They did not mislead anybody.
Even though the media jumped on this and said they did.
So it's really good to hear that Princess really carefully followed protocols
and did everything they could in their power
to pass this information on to the local governments.
Princess said: "Our hearts go out to everyone who has been affected.
"Particularly those who lost loved ones.
"The Commission’s report confirms that none of our people -
"the Captain, the ship’s doctor, or members of our shore side port agency team —
"misled public authorities involved in Ruby Princess being permitted to disembark guests on March 19."
So, what do you think about this?
We can't believe the pure negligence from the Australian government and authorities in this.
Princess were very open and clear with the amount of sick people on the ship.
So how did this happen?
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
As well as all of the flack that Princess got with this as well.
The media really crucified them over this.
Placing the blame onto the cruise line.
As well as the captain.
It's really unfair and again we're seeing trials by media.
It's just really shocking isn't it.
Bringing cruise into disrepute again.
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Our captain of the week is Paul.
So, ahoy there Paul.
That's it till next time.
Happy cruising.