139 More People on Mumbai-Goa Cruise Test COVID Positive; More Reports Awaited
This is in addition to the 66 passengers who had already test positive.
advertisement
139 of the 1,827 passengers on board the Mumbai-Goa Cordelia cruise ship on Wednesday, 5 January, tested positive for COVID-19 in Mumbai, as per updates from the BMC.
The BMC had on Wednesday evening first reported that 123 people had tested positive, and followed that up with information about another 16 people testing positive.
This is in addition to the 66 passengers who had already tested positive.
Reports of approximately 800 passengers are yet to arrive.
According to BMC, two labs tested 1,827 passengers on the Cordelia Cruise Ship.
One lab tested 995 passengers of which all reports are out.
Testing of the remaining 832 passengers was done by another lab. The reports of this lab are expected to come in subsequently.
More Details
At least 41 of the already COVID-positive passengers (60 of who had returned to Mumbai, while six stayed back in Goa), have been shifted to isolation centres in Mumbai, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) said earlier on Wednesday.
The cruise ship on which 66 passengers were found positive for COVID-19 arrived in Mumbai at 6 pm on Tuesday. Six of the positive crew members reportedly disembarked in Goa for isolation on Monday. The other 60 had returned to Mumbai.
The ship was sent back to Mumbai on Monday, after many of the passengers refused to deboard and get admitted to quarantine facilities in Goa.
Prajakta Ambekar, Medical officer, BMC, was quoted by ANI on Tuesday as saying:
"All passengers on board the ship will undergo RT-PCR test, their results will be out by 7 am tomorrow."
On Arrival
The BMC had on Tuesday said that the passengers who test positive will be kept under isolation at the Richardson and Cruddas COVID treatment and isolation centre and their samples will be sent for genome sequencing.
Meanwhile, the passengers who test negative will undergo 7-day mandatory home quarantine.
BMC has arranged five 17-seater ambulances.
When Passengers Refused to Quarantine in Goa
Speaking to PTI, JM Baxi and Co-operations manager Govind Pernulkar said that 27 passengers refused to leave the ship and be sent to COVID-19 facilities in Goa, following which the South Goa district administration ordered that the ship, along with all the passengers, be sent back.
Background
One of the passengers aboard the cruise ship told The Quint, on the condition of anonymity, on Monday, that several passengers were still being careless despite authorities urging them to follow protocols.
One COVID-infected crew member was first isolated, and RT-PCR tests of 1,471 passengers and 595 crew members were conducted on 2 January.
The ship had earlier tied up with Salgaocar Medical Research Centre (SMRC) Hospital, a private hospital in Vasco, for COVID testing of all the people on board.
The ship belongs to Cordelia Cruises, the same company whose cruise was raided for drugs, in which Aryan Khan and several others were arrested.
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)