Outbreak Feared As Over 2,000 Passengers Stuck On Goa Cruise Ship After Crew Tests COVID+

A Cordelia Cruise crew member has tested positive for Covid-19 with over 2,000 people on board the ship that left Mumbai for Goa.

The crew member was isolated in the ship itself and the RT-PCR tests of 1471 passengers and 595 crew members were done. The reports of the tests are awaited.

Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said that out of 2000 samples tested from Cordelia cruise ship, 66 passengers tested positive for COVID19. The authorities will decide whether to allow disembarking of passengers from the ship.

The ship is currently harboured near the Mormugao Port cruise terminal, Vasco.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Ship agent JM Baxi, Govind Pernulkar said, "We got the information around 9 am from the ship doctor that a crew member has been tested positive. As soon as we got the information, we informed the government authorities and stopped the ship outside."

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"It was rumored that multiple crew members tested positive but let me clarify that out of the 2017 people on board, only one was tested positive. The test has been done for the rest of the members, once the report comes, we will decide our next course of action. As of now, the ship is on its berth. Nobody is allowed to get on and off the deck," he added.

Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Sunday that a cruise ship with 2,000 passengers on board was not allowed to dock at Goa port on Sunday.

Operators of this cruise ship have been asked to conduct COVID-19 tests on all the passengers through the Vasco-based Salgaonkar Medical Research Centre (SMRC) Hospital before allowing them to alight.

Pathologist Dr Eugene D¡¯Souza, a consultant at Victor Hospital, a private hospital doing the tests, told The Times of India on Sunday that the process started around 9.30 pm. Until 11.30 pm, around 500 samples had been collected and it was to continue overnight.

PTI

A port trust official said that all passengers will be tested before being allowed to disembark. ¡°All the passengers are double-vaccinated. The ship doctor had tested a crew member who had a fever for a day. The vessel was kept outside the port limits while authorities were informed,¡± they said.

Health Minister Rane said that international flights with 4,000 passengers land in Goa every day and that every flight has Covid positive passengers. ¡°We have to be strict about Covid protocol.¡±

Rane also said Goa will set up a genome sequencing machine in the next 15 days to avoid delay in the testing of suspected Omicron variant samples, which are currently sent to the Pune-based NIV.

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