Goa: Over 2,000 passengers stuck aboard cruise ship after crew tests COVID-positive

Goa health minister Vishwajit Rane on Sunday said a cruise ship, Cordelia Cruises' Empress, with 2,000 passengers on board was not allowed to dock at Goa port after a crew member was found positive for coronavirus .

Operators of the cruise ship have been asked to conduct COVID-19 tests on all the passengers through the Vasco-based Salgaonkar Medical Research Centre (SMRC) Hospital before allowing them to alight.

Pathologist Dr Eugene D'Souza, a consultant at Victor Hospital, a private hospital doing the tests, told sources on Sunday that the process started around 9.30 pm. Until 11.30 pm, around 500 samples had been collected and it was to continue overnight.

According to sources all passengers will be tested before being allowed to disembark.

Rane also said Goa will set up a genome sequencing machine in the next 15 days to avoid delay in the testing of suspected Omicron variant samples, which are currently sent to the Pune-based NIV. He said Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will hold a meeting of Task Force on Monday in which certain measures are likely to be announced to curb the spread of coronavirus infections.

Goa's COVID-19 tally touched 1,81,182 on Saturday after 310 cases were detected, while the death toll remained unchanged at 3,522, an official said.