Stricken passengers finally return to Australia after being stranded in Uruguay

MORE than 100 Australian and New Zealand cruise ship passengers, most of whom are infected with the coronavirus, have landed in Melbourne after spending the last two weeks stranded in Uruguay.

A plane carrying 112 passengers from the Antarctic cruise ship Greg Mortimer touched down early yesterday and was immediately boarded by medical staff in hazmat suits.

The flight was made up of 96 Australians and 16 New Zealanders – 13 of which were transferred to a charter flight home.

The operator of the Greg Mortimer, Aurora Expeditions, confirmed during the week that 128 of its 217 passengers tested positive for Covid-19.

Uruguay foreign minister Ernesto Talvi said two Australian passengers remain in intensive care in a Montevideo hospital.

The ship was stranded in Uruguay for more than two weeks after leaving Argentina on March 15 for a 16-day return trip to Antarctica.

“Everybody who needs to go to hospital will go to hospital and the remaining passengers will go into quarantine in hotels,” said Victoria state Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Annaliese van Diemen.

The returning New Zealanders will also be quarantined in hotels.

“As a large proportion of passengers on the Greg Mortimer have tested positive for Covid-19, all passengers are being treated as though they are Covid-positive as a precautionary measure,” a foreign ministry spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Russians who cannot visit their renowned museums during lockdown are filling the holes in their souls by recreating artworks and posting them on social media.

The Facebook group where the works are posted has become a huge hit. The art recreations range from studious and reverent to flippant and goofy and are done both by Russians and Russian-speakers abroad.

Some 350,000 people are following the group, where thousands of photos are posted, each showing the original work and the mock-up made at home.

The rules say it must only use items on hand and cannot be digitally manipulated.

There are some impressive surprises in the collection.

Vitaly Fonarev carefully recreated the clothes and headdress of Johannes Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring and captured the Dutch artist’s famous glowing light.

The work is so convincing it takes a few moments to notice the “girl” actually is a man with a few days’ worth of beard stubble.

Irina Kazatsker found the project perfect for her skills. The Canadian photographer had the lights and the backdrops to do a loving recreation of Picasso’s The Frugal Meal – with the sly twist of putting a roll of toilet paper on the table.

“I decided to add a provocative detail that corresponds to the spirit of the time,” she said.

Natalia Rubina’s rendition of Edvard Munch’s The Scream involved simply making a hole in a poster of the painting at the spot showing an anguished man’s head, then getting a dog to stick its head through.