The NSW Police Commissioner, Mick Fuller, has announced that a criminal investigation will be launched into the ‘mishandling’ of the disembarkation of Ruby Princess passengers in Sydney, with the cruise ship revealed as the largest source of COVID-19 cases in Australia.
The total number of passengers from Ruby Princess who have died as a result of COVID-19 has reached 11, and those deaths account for over 30% of all Australian COVID-19 deaths to date.
2,700 passengers disembarked in Sydney on 19 March 2020. and over 650 people linked to the cruise have now been revealed to be COVID-19 positive.
Commissioner Fuller said that the focus of the investigation would be on the cruise line operator, Carnival, saying, “The key question remains … was Carnival transparent in contextualising the true patient and crew health conditions [prior to passengers being permitted to disembark] relevant to COVID-19?
“There seems to be absolute discrepancies between the information provided by Carnival and what I would see is the benchmark for the laws that the Federal Government and State Government put in place in terms of protecting Australians from cruise ships when coronavirus had started.”
IMAGE: Chef Curtis Stone on Ruby Princess, October 2019
