Urgent - Ruby Princess 3 people infected - Urgent Tracking of Passengers

[ilikeanswers]

1 hour ago, DiamondFour said:

The ultimate blame for this fiasco lies with a communist party that has not apologised to the world, given an honest account and stooped to blaming US soldiers for spreading the virus as a weapon. I will never forget that. That country will never be visited by me again. I will avoid purchasing products made in that country. After my experience on the Diamond Princess you could say I am more angry that old kevin is on channel 7 right now. I am honestly furious at that communist dictatorship in way that I have never been before.

 

The conspiracy theorist was one Chinese offical who was not back up by his party. It is easy to focus all blame on China but I do wonder even if China had revealed their information in early December would the world have reacted any differently? China went into lock down 23 January. When a virus is bringing China to a standstill you would think the world would see it as a serious threat and yet all we had was flight bans to Wuhan. Only a handful of countries reacted and set up emergency procedures like Singapore, Hong Kong ,Taiwan and Germany. No one else was stock piling masks, ventilators, increasing ICU beds, I didn't even see any thermo cameras at any airports except TPE. China did wrong by the world sure but once they made their problems public it really became the responsibilty of everyone else to react and prepare and personally I think 95% of the world dropped the ball on this.

[Aus Traveller]

The Channel 9 Sixty Minutes show was not as sensationalized at the Channel 7 one - no red screen, no dramatic music, no crying relatives. They also had very little hard information on what happened. This was a fairly short segment, then they moved on to one about the COVID virus.

 

I was surprised about the couple from the Ruby. The husband has the virus, but his wife doesn't. She was sitting next to him on the sofa, less than a metre away, with neither of them wearing masks. If I was in her situation I would keep much further away.

[MicCanberra]

I didn't watch either show.

[icat2000]

29 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

The Channel 9 Sixty Minutes show was not as sensationalized at the Channel 7 one - no red screen, no dramatic music, no crying relatives. They also had very little hard information on what happened. This was a fairly short segment, then they moved on to one about the COVID virus.

 

I was surprised about the couple from the Ruby. The husband has the virus, but his wife doesn't. She was sitting next to him on the sofa, less than a metre away, with neither of them wearing masks. If I was in her situation I would keep much further away.

She had the old Glen 20 spraying it everywhere. When I was shopping couple of weeks ago. There one one lonely little can of Glen 20 left on the shelf. I grabbed it. 

[lyndarra]

After the first half hour I switched channels. I'd had enough. Watched docco about Tutankamun. He suffered from malaria it seems. These viruses aren't going away anytime soon and will out last all of us.

[ilikeanswers]

4 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

After the first half hour I switched channels. I'd had enough. Watched docco about Tutankamun. He suffered from malaria it seems. These viruses aren't going away anytime soon and will out last all of us.

 

Malaria is a parasite not a virus. After Ruby Princess 60min did a feature about health care workers on the COVID 19 frontline. I feel that was worth watching.

[lyndarra]

12 minutes ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

Malaria is a parasite not a virus. After Ruby Princess 60min did a feature about health care workers on the COVID 19 frontline. I feel that was worth watching.

You're quite right, I'd forgotten that. I did read somewhere that those who were at the opening of Tut's tomb were badly affected by ancient bacteria.

I watched 60 minutes, it was easier to tolerate but there are still things that just don't sound quite right. I'll reserve any comments until after the investigation.

Edited April 5, 2020 by lyndarra
typo

[ilikeanswers]

2 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

You're quite right, I'd forgotten that. I did read somewhere that those who were at the opening of Tut's tomb were badly affected by ancient bacteria.

I watched 60 minutes, it was easier to tolerate but there are still things that just don't sound quite right. I'll reserve any comments until after the investigation.

 

The Ruby Princess piece was very cursory so there was not much information anyway, I just found the features after quite interesting. When I was in high school we had to study King Tut in History and we were told it was mould spores that got the excavators🤔. I might need to do a google, my info is probably out of date😆.

[The_Big_M]

8 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

This is a difficult situation. When the NSW government department had given authority for the passengers to disembark, I suppose the Captain of the Ruby could have over-ridden that, and kept them on board until the end of the day when the tests would be returned. He would have had to arrange for the shore-side staff (Customs and Border Force) to wait around for the rest of the day. Hopefully they wouldn't have said "We have done our shift and we are going home." I suppose there was also the problem of passengers' booked flights. Would the Captain have thought that there was sufficient justification to keep the passengers on board for the rest of the day, just a a precaution. In retrospect, the answer is a resounding "Yes", but at the time, I don't know.

 

I don't see how that would be possible.

 

In this case, it would be extremely foolish as the captain had no medical testing ability, nor confirmation, so no basis to even challenge the health department. Moreover, his role is to deliver passengers safely to the destination country Australia. If Australia accepts them, and they have been treated to the best of the ability onboard as they appear to have, then his work is done. 

 

The responsibility sits with Australia, its border control, and sub policies related to Health. If those departments accept the passengers in, he has no right to prevent them and lock them up as the passengers have done nothing in contravention of the cruise line policy, and he certainly can't override health and border control responsibilities of Australia.

[The_Big_M]

7 hours ago, By The Bay said:

 

The Commissioner said on the day before passengers disembarked, a worker on the cruise made a 17-minute triple-0 call about two passengers who required medical assistance.

He said an ambulance supervisor was concerned about potential infection of passengers on the cruise and escalated the call to NSW Police marine area command.

Commissioner Fuller said police were told by operation managers from Carnival that COVID-19 was not an issue on the ship.

 

"From that perspective, there are many unanswered questions," he said.

 

 

That just sounds yet again like they're looking for a scapegoat.

 

1) The cruise line had no ability to test for coronavirus. All it says is someone made a call about needing medical assistance. That's already been established and there's nothing wrong with the cruise line for doing that - in fact you'd expect it!

2) Then it deflects to an ambulance supervisor. So again it's internal decision making in a government department. That's fair enough, but that's all about the government response - nothing untoward from the cruise line.

3) There were told by operation managers that covid-19 was not an issue on the ship. Of course - they had no ability to test so what else could be done???? The ship could hardly make up claims that it was on the ship when they had no means to do so, as the Health department well knew, which is why testing was being arranged.

 

So again a story concocted to justify a trumped up investigation and try to shift the blame from where it sits.

 

Good luck getting some accountability from this government.

[The_Big_M]

5 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

I will watch the Channel 7 show and try to keep my blood pressure from rising too high. Maybe an extra drink might help. 😁 Then at 8.30 I will watch the Channel 9 Sixty Minutes show. I am hoping it is more balanced, but, you never know ..... The media will say anything for ratings.

 

Well, that was absolutely terrible journalism. So much attempted manipulation and biased reporting. 

 

And they had the hide to intersperse that "the facts" come from channel 7 news, and it has "all you need to know"

 

Gutter reporting. Evidently now that MKR has finished, the sound crew had switched to that program to add their dramatic sound effects. The producers tried to make it like "World War Z" for dramatic effect.

[MMDown Under]

5 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

The Channel 9 Sixty Minutes show was not as sensationalized at the Channel 7 one - no red screen, no dramatic music, no crying relatives. They also had very little hard information on what happened. This was a fairly short segment, then they moved on to one about the COVID virus.

 

I was surprised about the couple from the Ruby. The husband has the virus, but his wife doesn't. She was sitting next to him on the sofa, less than a metre away, with neither of them wearing masks. If I was in her situation I would keep much further away.

Thanks for the laugh re last sentence.  

[BRANDEE]

AusTraveller, Pushka, MMDownUnder, MicCanberra, The BigM  etc.

 

Thank you for posting what was said..or not..on the program regarding the Ruby Princess. Of course we get the same sensationalism in the  papers here, too. I'll keep in touch to see what else is going on.  Again, thanks for the conversation and company.  Please stay healthy and safe.

[Porky55]

8 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

I was surprised about the couple from the Ruby. The husband has the virus, but his wife doesn't. 

A question for you, as you seem to find information that I have looked for but can’t find. Has there been any confirmed cases directly attributed to our cruise - 24/2 to 8/3 that you know of? Not important now of course, way past virus infection date - just pure curiosity.
After CH7 story reporting “150ish very ill passengers on previous cruise” (ours) - strange number to start with but where did the number come from etc.

Thanks, Rose

[Porky55]

Think this Press Release from Princess is very calm and measured considering the piles of manure and blame being piled upon them by the Australian Media and Govt Depts: (of course it didn’t help because we now have a State Police Criminal/Coronial Inquiry about to happen - whatever the heck that is 😳)

 

Ruby Princess Advisory

Updated Tuesday, 31 March 2020

Sture Myrmell, President Carnival Australia said today: 

Carnival Australia is participating in high level federal and state discussions with the aim of enabling the repatriation of crew currently on board Ruby Princess on compassionate and humanitarian grounds.

Being able to send home those crew members who are not required for the safe operation of the ship is the right thing to do both from a humanitarian point of view and Australia’s international standing as a maritime nation that looks after foreign nationals in its care.

We are particularly concerned that a humanitarian approach should be taken in relation to the crew on Ruby Princess, which has left NSW territorial waters as demanded by the NSW Government.

However, we remain concerned that it is not safe for the ship to sail away from Australia while there are crew members on board who are ill. While illness on board has been reduced due to strong health management, the ship needs to remain within reach of Australia to access healthcare services if an urgent need arises.

Australia has maritime obligations to protect the welfare of seafarers and as such we need to care for foreign nationals as we would expect other nations to care for Australians in similar circumstances abroad.

Repatriation of Ruby Princess’s crew would be an important step in upholding Australia’s reputation as a caring maritime nation.

[MicCanberra]

9 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

The Ruby Princess piece was very cursory so there was not much information anyway, I just found the features after quite interesting. When I was in high school we had to study King Tut in History and we were told it was mould spores that got the excavators🤔. I might need to do a google, my info is probably out of date😆.

I thought it was a curse that killed all of Howard Carters team. 

[Ondine]

In relation to hurrying passengers off the ship.  This is always the case with some people having flights and prearranged pick ups waiting.  Although in this case because there were no passengers boarding for another cruise I would have thought  a bit less haste.

 

As for checking passports:  well I have done about 20 cruises from Melbourne and only once were the immigration officials set up to electronically check our passports on arrival home.  We were surprised that day.  Normally we only hand in our yellow cards and are sent quickly on our way.  This is why sometimes Centrelink doesn't always record us as returning to Australia because the information is manually imputed into their system and goes astray. Have been  caught up in this.

 

A bit of blame aimed at NSW Health but the bulk of aimed at the "Nasty Carnival Corp" and Ruby as was to be expected.  I bet the reporter wasn't in the Channel 7 helicopter when he flew over the ship and he didn't identify himself to the bridge crew.  Good manners dictate that when you make a phone call you identify yourself first.  mmm

 

For anyone passenger to say they did not know of the risks of the virus being on board must have been  living under a rock for the past 2 months because late January the Pacific Islands closed their borders to cruise ships because of this and it was starting to escalate with Chinese passport holders barred from boarding cruise ships early in March.  I know because I did a cruise 10 Feb to Noumea (bit of a mystery trip) and again on 2 Mar to NZ.  I was lucky but we were in constant fear on the last trip that if someone got ill on board  we would be denied docking in Melbourne as things were escalating by the hour.  The world was a lot different when we got home to when we left 12 days before.

[nnps]

11 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I didn't watch either show.

Me neither, I have given up on both channels for impartial and rational journalism.

[Aus Traveller]

3 hours ago, Porky55 said:

A question for you, as you seem to find information that I have looked for but can’t find. Has there been any confirmed cases directly attributed to our cruise - 24/2 to 8/3 that you know of? Not important now of course, way past virus infection date - just pure curiosity.
After CH7 story reporting “150ish very ill passengers on previous cruise” (ours) - strange number to start with but where did the number come from etc.

Thanks, Rose

Absolutely, definitely NOT!😁 The Guardian newspaper has one report (in error) that a couple disembarked on the 8th and flew to Darwin - later tested positive. BUT every other source says they disembarked from the Ruby on the 19th and flew to Darwin later that day.

 

The comment about ill passengers would have come from the ship's records of people who attended the medical centre. I think the figure mentioned was 158. That doesn't mean that 158 were still sick when the ship arrived in Sydney.

 

I feel it is also relevant to consider that the medical took 13 or 15 swabs on the 18th and requested that NSW Health test them for COVID-19. It is logical that these swabs were from the cases considered 'most likely'. Four or five returned a positive result: the others were negative. However, it is obvious that many others on the ship were already infected, but most probably showing no symptoms.

Edited April 5, 2020 by Aus Traveller

[Aus Traveller]

5 hours ago, BRANDEE said:

AusTraveller, Pushka, MMDownUnder, MicCanberra, The BigM  etc.

 

Thank you for posting what was said..or not..on the program regarding the Ruby Princess. Of course we get the same sensationalism in the  papers here, too. I'll keep in touch to see what else is going on.  Again, thanks for the conversation and company.  Please stay healthy and safe.

Thanks for your comments, and DON'T GO AWAY!!!🙂

[OzKiwiJJ]

11 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

I didn't watch either show.

 

9 minutes ago, nnps said:

Me neither, I have given up on both channels for impartial and rational journalism.

 

Ditto. 

[DiamondFour]

12 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

The conspiracy theorist was one Chinese offical who was not back up by his party. It is easy to focus all blame on China but I do wonder even if China had revealed their information in early December would the world have reacted any differently? China went into lock down 23 January. When a virus is bringing China to a standstill you would think the world would see it as a serious threat and yet all we had was flight bans to Wuhan. Only a handful of countries reacted and set up emergency procedures like Singapore, Hong Kong ,Taiwan and Germany. No one else was stock piling masks, ventilators, increasing ICU beds, I didn't even see any thermo cameras at any airports except TPE. China did wrong by the world sure but once they made their problems public it really became the responsibilty of everyone else to react and prepare and personally I think 95% of the world dropped the ball on this.

Not backed up by his party you say? The fact he was not reprimanded or punished for it and the chinese communist party did nothing to retract his claims speaks volumes of their intentions.

 

That aside the NSW government and police commissioner are looking for a scapegoat regarding the Ruby Princess.

 

I think we need a higher level of investigation to determine the following:

 

Bear in mind prior to this cruise Princess was already cancelling cruises all around the world out of precaution. Caribbean Princess and Grand Princes to name a few.

 

1. As was reported the ship did not sail on the 8th March until NSW Health gave it the all-clear. Was there State or Federal Government intervention on behalf of a large unnamed religious group with political influence sailing on that 8th March voyage to pressure or allow authorities to give that ship permission to sail. Note that at this date Princess had already cancelled Grand Princess, Caribbean Princess and Diamond Princess sailings. They were acting above and beyond.

2. Were there passengers on the 24th February or 8th March sailing on Ruby Princess who were either the parents or in-laws or closely associated with the parents or in-laws of a senior Federal Government Minister.

3. Was there and State or Federal Government intervention to allow the passengers of Ruby Princess to disembark the ship early on its return to Sydney despite ambulances taking passengers and suspected cases of the virus originating from china on board the ship.

4. Did any passenger on the ship who may have been connected politically receive the contact details of people or departments in the NSW government to pull strings to allow that ship to disembark the passengers early.

 

We must remember here that Princess fully cooperated in Japan with the Diamond Princess. They knew how serious this was. They had recalled the Caribbean Princess over a noro-virus outbreak and paused the operation of the Grand Princess and then on the 12th March announced a pause of all ships in their fleet for 60 days. They knew things were getting serious and were ready to pull the pin on cruises. They were probably planning this for days or weeks and it is inevitable the 8th March sailing would have been recalled early. Princess was probably not that desperate to send the Ruby Princess out at all costs.

 

We need an independent and impartial investigation into what went wrong and whether there is a government attempt to cover this up.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Did either of the shows mention the percentage of passengers who had travelled from overseas (excluding NZ) for that cruise, and how no incoming passengers on arriving flights had no health checks at all?

 

I vaguely recall someone saying around 20% of the passengers on that cruise were from the US but it may have been on a different forum. Certainly on the NZ cruises we have done on Celebrity over the past few years there was a high percentage Americans and British passengers onboard.

Edited April 5, 2020 by OzKiwiJJ

[OzKiwiJJ]

3 minutes ago, DiamondFour said:

 

 

We must remember here that Princess fully cooperated in Japan with the Diamond Princess. They knew how serious this was. They had recalled the Caribbean Princess over a noro-virus outbreak and paused the operation of the Grand Princess and then on the 12th March announced a pause of all ships in their fleet for 60 days. They knew things were getting serious and were ready to pull the pin on cruises. They were probably planning this for days or weeks and it is inevitable the 8th March sailing would have been recalled early. Princess was probably not that desperate to send the Ruby Princess out at all costs.

 

We need an independent and impartial investigation into what went wrong and whether there is a government attempt to cover this up.

Princess did pull the pin on all cruises, on March 12th, four days after that cruise departed. However they stated that cruises that were in progress would either complete their itineraries or finish in some other suitable port - I can't recall the exact wording on this.

[Aus Traveller]

26 minutes ago, Ondine said:

In relation to hurrying passengers off the ship.  This is always the case with some people having flights and prearranged pick ups waiting.  Although in this case because there were no passengers boarding for another cruise I would have thought  a bit less haste.

 

As for checking passports:  well I have done about 20 cruises from Melbourne and only once were the immigration officials set up to electronically check our passports on arrival home.  We were surprised that day.  Normally we only hand in our yellow cards and are sent quickly on our way.  This is why sometimes Centrelink doesn't always record us as returning to Australia because the information is manually imputed into their system and goes astray. Have been  caught up in this.

 

A bit of blame aimed at NSW Health but the bulk of aimed at the "Nasty Carnival Corp" and Ruby as was to be expected.  I bet the reporter wasn't in the Channel 7 helicopter when he flew over the ship and he didn't identify himself to the bridge crew.  Good manners dictate that when you make a phone call you identify yourself first.  mmm

 

For anyone passenger to say they did not know of the risks of the virus being on board must have been  living under a rock for the past 2 months because late January the Pacific Islands closed their borders to cruise ships because of this and it was starting to escalate with Chinese passport holders barred from boarding cruise ships early in March.  I know because I did a cruise 10 Feb to Noumea (bit of a mystery trip) and again on 2 Mar to NZ.  I was lucky but we were in constant fear on the last trip that if someone got ill on board  we would be denied docking in Melbourne as things were escalating by the hour.  The world was a lot different when we got home to when we left 12 days before.

I agree with your comments. On both the Channel 7 and Channel 9 reports, passengers said they were "rushed off the ship" with the implication that the ship's officers knew "something was wrong". I notice that on disembarkation, passengers seem to have a different mindset from the days earlier. The cruise is over and they just want to get home. 

 

The passengers who were interviewed thought it was relevant that passports weren't checked on arrival. "We were just waved through - they wanted to get rid of us". We haven't had our passports checked for I don't know how long. As you said, you just hand in your yellow card that has questions relating to quarantine and the value of goods brought into the country. We have been told that the ship supplies  Border Force with the details of incoming passengers.

 

You make a good point about the reporter not being in a Channel 7 helicopter. If he was, the officer on the bridge would not have asked him a few times who he was. Very sneaky. Anyway, the officer didn't fall for the deception.