The doomed Ruby Princess cruise ship was set to be stopped from entering Sydney Harbour until a last minute backflip by port authorities, leaked phone calls reveal.
A total of 2,700 passengers – ten of who have since died from coronavirus – were able to disembark without health checks under the cover of darkness at 2.30am on March 19.
More than 340 of the ship’s passengers have since been confirmed to have the virus.
But explosive phone calls between Ruby Princess officials, NSW Port Authorities and NSW Ambulance officers, who were called to help ill passengers, reveal the debacle could have easily been avoided.
In fact the NSW Port Authority initially told the ship’s captain not to dock as planned because of concerns passengers had COVID-19, before a midnight phone call that changed everything, The Sunday Telegraph reports.
The doomed Ruby Princess cruise ship was set to be stopped from entering Sydney Harbour (pictured) until a last minute backflip by port authorities, leaked phone calls have revealed
Phone calls from the night of March 18 reveal cruise ship officials had concerns that some of its 2,700 passengers may have had coronavirus and needed to be take off the ship by paramedics (pictured)
Logs from that night by NSW Port Authority officials – who oversee the entrance of all ships to Sydney Harbour – reveal they refused the Ruby Princess entry about 11.30pm on March 18.
That decision was made after emails between the ship’s doctor and NSW Health that outlined concerns over 110 sick passengers onboard.
Among the sick were 17 with ‘temperatures over 38C’ and six who had ‘muscle aches and diarrhoea, severe vomiting or headaches’ – all common coronavirus symptoms.
In a conversation between a Ruby Princess official and a NSW Ambulance officer just before 9pm that night, it is clear there were concerns that some passengers may be suffering from the virus.
The cruise official requested two ambulances upon docking.
Carnival cruises representative: ‘The doctor has told me they have been tested for corona so precautions need to be taken, so (they) possibly (require an ambulance).’
NSW Ambulance Officer: ‘And (for the next patient), the same as before, has she been tested for coronavirus?’
Carnival cruises representative: ‘Yeah, she has been swabbed for coronavirus… (but the) influenza test negative.’
At about 11.30pm on March 18, the harbour master told the Ruby Princess they would not be allowed to dock in Sydney.
Confusion appeared to reign during discussions between cruise ship officials, port authorities and ambulance officers on the night of March 18 – just hours before the Ruby Princess docked
The Ruby Princess accounts for most of NSW’s positive coronavirus cases with more than 340 testing positive and seven deaths
There are more than 5,550 confirmed coronavirus cases across Australia, with 30 deaths so far
It came two days after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a 30-day ban on all cruise ships arriving in Australia.
But the harbour master reversed the decision just an hour later.
Despite being expected to dock at 6am the next morning, the ship arrived at port at 2.30am.
It led to confusion among two ambulance officers who were called to tend to the ill Ruby Princess passengers.
In another explosive phone call the two officers debated the competing advice they had received from Ruby Princess officials as to whether passengers were suspected of having the virus and whether tests had come back negative.
Officer 1: ‘(The Ruby Princess has) booked two ambulances for non-COVID related (patients).
Officer 2: ‘(No, I believe they are) COVID-related. Anyone who has any respiratory issues or breathing problems… we ask them all the questions about corona.’
Officer 1: ‘They’re saying that it’s not… but we still can’t raise the Ruby Princess yet.
‘I’ll just let you know the cruise had gone to New Zealand before coming back here. During that time five people have been suspected of having coronavirus. They’ve all been tested and they’ve all come back negative.’
Officer 2: ‘The information that we got was that these two patients have been tested but the results haven’t come back.’
When the Ruby Princess left Sydney Harbour for a trip to New Zealand it was seen to be a medium risk of having coronavirus passengers.
By the time it was halfway through the trip, that ranking had somehow been reduced to low risk – a decision that was defended by NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant.
NSW Police have since launched an investigation into the handling of Ruby Princess’ arrival in Sydney, while also attempting to usher remaining cruise ships off the coast out of Australian waters.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant and Health Minister Brad Hazzard have defended the decisions to allow the cruise ship to dock, saying the level of influenza on board was ‘low risk’
NSW Police have ordered other cruise ships remaining in NSW waters to leave in the largest peacetime marine operation in Australia’s history
Spectrum of the Seas (pictured on Saturday morning) has now left Australia to go home, after an unprecedented maritime operation
Operation Nemesis is the largest maritime operation in Australian peacetime history.
The first of five ships were led out of NSW waters on Friday afternoon, after receiving medical and food supplies for the 1,100 crew that remain stranded onboard.
From 4.30pm on Friday, it saw NSW Police officers board cruise ships sitting in and around Sydney Harbour and order them to leave the waters.
Only the Ruby Princess remains in the area, sitting off the coast at Stanwell Tops – an hour south of Sydney.
It comes after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she didn’t want to point fingers at a time of crisis and would leave NSW Police Commission Mick Fuller to investigate.
‘I’ll let the police commissioner get to the bottom of it. I don’t think it helps anybody to point fingers and play the blame game,’ she told reporters on Friday.
‘Let [Mr Fuller] do his investigations and let him tell us who is responsible.’