The managers of the cruise fleet “Princess Cruises” must think of a curse. Almost two years after the memorable quarantine of the “Diamond Princess” in Japan, the “Majestic Princess”, another cruise liner of the company, docked in Sydney Harbor (Australia) after being hit by a wave of contamination to Covid-19, according to the American channel CNN.
Out of 3,300 passengers, around 800 have tested positive, as have a small number of crew members, Marguerite Fitzgerald, president of cruise line Carnival Australia, said on Saturday.
Few or no symptoms
“All of the positive cases were mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and those passengers self-isolated in their cabins and then were separated from the negative passengers,” Briana Latter, a representative for parent company “Princess Cruises,” told CNN. Once they arrived in Sydney, they were able to leave the ship freely. The liner’s staff escorted the sick ashore separately and advised them to observe a five-day isolation period.
The “Majestic Princess” has since left Sydney and is expected to set off again for a next trip to Melbourne and Tasmania.
In February 2020, another ship from the same company, the “Diamond Princess” made headlines, also suffering from a Covid epidemic on board, at the height of the pandemic. The liner had been forced to observe a quarantine of several weeks in Japan.