A large Princess Cruises ship with COVID cases onboard missed a scheduled call in Western Australia due to bad weather.
Coral Princess has an undisclosed number of Coronavirus cases (reportedly 100+ passengers and crew) but the operators, Carnival Australia, said the majority of the 2000 guests were unaffected.
The liner left Broome for Geraldton on Monday, October 24, but bad weather forced Coral Princess to bypass her scheduled stop there today, October 27, and head to Fremantle.
According to Carnival Australia, the change of schedule had been on the advice of the Mid West Ports Authority.
The ship is now expected to reach Fremantle (Perth) on Friday where those travelers who return a negative rapid antigen test will be able to go ashore.
In a statement, Carnival Australia said:
“We continue to monitor closely a small number of guests who tested positive to COVID-19 and who are isolating and are being cared for in their stateroom by our medical and support staff. All cases on board have been asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic. Case numbers remain relatively steady.”
Earlier this week, WA Health announced it had been advised of the COVID cases onboard the liner but had not been asked for assistance in managing the impacted people.
It said all cruise operators visiting WA had to abide by the national protocols and have their own COVID plans.
Large cruise vessels were banned from Western Australia's waters in 2020. The ban was lifted in April 2022 for boats with up to 350 passengers. Larger boats were allowed to return from October 1st, with Coral Princess being the first to visit the region.
For more Coral Princess incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.