Cruise ship linked to Australian coronavirus cluster reaches Philippines

MANILA, May 7 (Reuters) - A cruise ship at the heart of
Australia's biggest coronavirus cluster arrived off the
Philippines on Thursday to repatriate more than 200 crew,
leaving behind weeks of outrage and acrimony over why
symptomatic passengers were allowed to disembark.
Just under a quarter of Australia's 97 coronavirus deaths
can be traced back to Carnival Corp's CCL.N Ruby Princess,
which has been a flashpoint for anger in Australia and the focus
of a criminal investigation after a spike in cases followed its
March 19 arrival in Sydney.
The 114,000-tonne, 19-deck ship reached Manila Bay on
Thursday, joining a cluster of about a dozen other cruise ships
that will be subjected to on-board testing for COVID-19 before
any Filipino crew members can disembark.
Reduced flights and travel bans due to the coronavirus, as
well as outbreaks on several ships, have brought the cruise
industry to a virtual standstill.
Princess Cruises said on Wednesday its voyages would remain
suspended through to the end of summer. According to the coastguard, there are 214 Filipinos aboard
the Ruby Princess, one of at least three ships owned by
Carnival's cruise company that became hotbeds of coronavirus
infections.
A special commission of inquiry in Australia has been
hearing testimony this week about events leading up to the
unloading of about 2,700 passengers without health checks.
Included at the hearing were details of medical logs a few
days earlier that showed dozens of people aboard were showing
acute respiratory symptoms, with numbers rising each day.
Nearly 700 guests who disembarked later tested positive for
the coronavirus, some spreading it across Australia, including
to far-flung places like Tasmania, where all but two of 12
deaths stem from the cruise ship. Carnival has said it would cooperate with the investigation
by the New South Wales state homicide squad.
At the weekend, Admiral Joey Garcia, commandant of the
Philippine coastguard, said he hoped testing of the cruise ships
in Manila Bay could be completed within a week and quarantine
"graduates" could return home soon.
On Wednesday, 1,912 Filipino crew members aboard seven ships
were visited by task force personnel carrying out the tests.
"The ship itself is the quarantine place for the seafarers,"
Garcia said. "The quarantine rule is to have all of them tested
before they disembark."
More than 500 crew of 15 nationalities were repatriated from
the Ruby Princess last month.