Cruise Ship With 66 Covid Patients Reaches Mumbai

The Cordelia cruise ship with 66 Covid patients on board reached Mumbai from Goa this evening, Mumbai's civic officials said.

The cruise liner anchored at a passenger terminal in south Mumbai's Ballard Pier around 6.30 pm and a team of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and police personnel has reached the spot, they said.

The BMC has arranged for five ambulances, each 17-seater, to take the patients to a Covid care centre, the officials said.

The patients also have the option of quarantining themselves at hotels at their own expense, they said.

Earlier, the civic body had said that all positive people on board the cruise ship will be quarantined in Mumbai, while others will have to undergo RT-PCR tests before disembarking.

Passengers will be allowed to deboard only after their test report shows a negative result. However, they will have to remain in isolation at home for a week, the BMC said.

RT-PCR testing on the ship will be done by two labs and their reports are expected by 9 am tomorrow, it added.

As many as 66 of the over 2,000 people on board have tested positive for coronavirus, officials have said.