A cruise ship with a COVID-19 outbreak among crew and passengers has arrived in New South Wales today as the state government announces a key change to its reinfection policy.
Queensland Health said 118 people on board the Carnival Australia ship, Coral Princess, had tested positive to the virus since it left Brisbane on Sunday.
Of those cases, 114 are crew members and four are passengers.
The ship with more than 2,300 guests and crew onboard, docked in Eden on the NSW South Coast today, the first cruise liner to return to the town since COVID-19 shut the industry down two years ago.
The ship is also scheduled to be in Sydney for one day on Wednesday.
Queensland Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said 24 people with COVID disembarked in Brisbane and were all isolating.
The others are isolating on the ship as per normal protocol.
Dr Gerrard said COVID protocols on cruise ships were "very adequate".
"There's a great deal of detail in those protocols and requirements on the cruising industry," Dr Gerrard said.
"There's [been] considerable thought from public health officials and epidemiologists ... into putting these protocols in place.
"Anyone who goes on a cruise shop will hopefully be up to date with vaccinations."
Dr Gerrard said it was "inevitable" there would be outbreaks on cruise ships.
"To keep this virus off these ships where there are thousands of people in the middle of a pandemic is extraordinarily difficult."
A spokesman for Carnival Australia said recent screening found some crew recorded positive tests and were placed in isolation away from passengers.
The spokesman said the number of cases identified by Queensland Health were “overwhelmingly among crew who were isolated on board in line with the protocols that have effectively supported the resumption of cruising in Australia since May".
However, one passenger, Wendy, told ABC Brisbane she tested positive on board, and was not told about positive cases on board the ship until the night before she disembarked in Brisbane.
"That night, my husband started feeling ill, he had the chills and so now he's still sick coughing," Wendy said.
"I had a terrible night, I've been coughing all night. It definitely isn't the dream holiday."
Wendy said some guests on board the cruise ship wore masks, while others did not.
"There was a lot of people coughing, and when we boarded, they were coughing in the line that we were waiting at the cruise terminal," she said.
Wendy said guests were expected to wash their hands before going to the buffet, but the crew were not always around to monitor.
"The buffet, unbelievably, is still in operation and you serve yourself," she said.
"There's tongs, but if you touch your face or you cough, there's no glass covering the food — I think that should have been canned straight away."
On July 9, a passenger received a letter while on the cruise, alerting them to a breakout of COVID amongst crew.
"We would like to notify you of elevated positive case numbers amongst crew members currently aboard Coral Princess," the letter said.
"We continue to test all crew members and isolate any that return a positive result along with their close contacts."
The outbreak comes as NSW Health announced its official reinfection period was being revised from 12 weeks down to four weeks, as the latest sub-variants of Omicron circulate in the community.
It means that people who develop symptoms any time after 28 days from their last COVID-19 isolation period may have caught the virus again and must take a test.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the reduced reinfection period follows advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.
"The Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants are circulating widely in New South Wales," Dr Chant said.
"They are more able to evade immunity gained from previous infection and vaccination reinfection is more likely and possible just weeks after a prior infection."
There are currently 2,049 infected patients in hospital in NSW, with 58 in intensive care.
A Carnival Cruises spokesman said it had asked its passengers disembarking in Eden today to wear a mask where appropriate, and be mindful of the local community.
Wendy and Bruno Lucchese are passengers onboard the Coral Princess and spent the day exploring Eden.
They said Carnival Cruises contacted them about the COVID-19 cases onboard before the ship departed, but that it didn't deter them.
"They sent us an email to say that some of the crew had COVID and if we wished to cancel then we could," Ms Lucchese said.
"But we figured we'd cancel this one and then we go on another and the same thing could happen again.
"You just have to get on with life."
Local resident and Cruise Eden volunteer Barb Westmacott said it was a needed boost for the town's economy.
"We've really missed [them,] it's been a very long two years," she said.
"The population doubles whenever the ship is in town and that's just brilliant for our local community."
No crew members will disembark and all passengers disembarking will be requested to return a negative RAT result first.
