Omicron Hits Cordelia: 66 tested positive, Cruise sent to Mumbai

The infected passengers will stay on the ship.

Panaji: Amid the Omicron scare, the Cordelia Cruise ship on which 66 of them over 2,000 people on board tested positive for COVID-19 has been sent back to Mumbai from a port in Goa, news agency PTI reported this morning. Several infected passengers refused to leave the cruise ship, Cordelia, for quarantine at a medical facility in Goa.

The infected passengers will stay on the ship, an official of a shipping agency told news agency PTI.

As per an official, all the passengers tested after a crew member was found positive on Sunday.

After getting 66 tested positive, the officials routed the cruise back to Mumbai. According to the shipping firm JM Baxi and Cooperations manager, Govind Pernulkar said, "the ship was sent back to Mumbai - from where it had set sail for a New Year party - at 11.30 pm yesterday after 27 positive passengers refused to leave the cruise ship."

Mr Pernulkar added, "The ship had to be sent back after some of the passengers who tested positive refused to get admitted to a COVID-19 facility in Goa. Only six crew members out of the total 66 who tested positive left the cruise in Goa."

He said that after considering the situation, the south Goa district administration ordered that the ship along with all the passengers be sent back to Mumbai. "The passengers who were shifted to an isolation facility were brought back to the ship before it sailed for Mumbai. The passengers would be isolated on the ship," he said.

The first COVID-19 hotspot in a cruise ship was onboard Diamond Princess, which was quarantined by Japan in January 2020 when COVID-19 had started sweeping across nations. Over 700 people on board the cruise ship had tested positive.