Ruby Princess probe slams NSW Health

THE New South Wales Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess has found a number of “serious mistakes” by NSW Health in handling the arrival and disembarkation of the ship in Sydney on 19 Mar.

The full 320-page report from Commissioner Bret Walker was released on Fri afternoon by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (CW breaking news), and confirms the assertions made at the time of the incident that Princess Cruises and Carnival Corporation followed all procedures correctly.

Based on a series of errors in assessment of the situation, the NSW Health Expert Panel concluded that the Ruby Princess was “low risk”, a decision that Walker said was “as inexplicable as it is unjustifiable”.

A key issue highlighted was a change to the definition of a “suspect case” for COVID-19, which was updated on 10 Mar.

Had this been communicated correctly to Ruby Princess it would have resulted in the identification of such cases on the ship, numbering 120 by the time the ship docked.

“NSW Health should also have ensured that such persons were isolated in cabins... these were serious mistakes,” the report said.

The report also cites the “inexcusable” delay in obtaining test results for the swabs taken from the ship on the morning of 19 Jun, which “should have been tested immediately,” Walker said.

Princess Cruises welcomed the report’s confirmation that the ship’s Captain, doctor and members of the company’s shoreside port agency team did not mislead public authorities.

“This finding is of great importance to us because it goes to the integrity of our people,” said Princess head Jan Swartz.

“We have always sought to cooperate honestly and professionally with officials in accordance with the regulatory environment,” she said.

The report does find that Carnival should have ensured the

Ruby Princess doctor was made aware of the 10 Mar update to the “suspect case” definition, and also said those who met that definition should have been required to isolate in their cabins.

Walker made a series of recommendations about guidelines for granting ships permission to dock, better awareness of the roles of various authorities in relation to human biosecurity, improvements to reporting, and that the Biosecuirty Act “make explicit a requirement to update superceded human health information”.