Just 17 days before stricken cruise ship, the Ruby Princess, docked in Sydney, NSW Health sought to reassure people in Bega Valley that extra measures were in place for cruise ship passengers visiting Eden.
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The statements from NSW Health came in response to questions specifically asked by ACM about the coronavirus plans or precautions put place around cruise ships visiting the NSW Far South Coast.
In a response to the questions, on March 2, a NSW Health spokesperson said Australia had put in place extra border measures, health screening and isolation recommendations for people and vessels travelling to Australia, through biosecurity officers with the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment.
"This is in addition to the normal process, where all ships entering Australian territory are legally required to report ill passengers and crew presenting on the pre-arrival report via the Maritime Arrivals Reporting System," the NSW Health spokesperson said.
"NSW Health has an existing Cruise Ship Health Surveillance Program coordinated by the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District. In response to COVID-19, the program has been collecting additional health and travel information from all cruise ships coming into NSW, which is reviewed by a NSW Health expert panel to assess the risk of COVID-19."
NSW Health sought to provide further reassurance on how it would deal with cruise ships saying screening was "only one piece of the assessment".
"Following this risk assessment, further assessment may be done by a NSW health team when the ship docks, including assessing people with fever and respiratory symptoms or who have risk of exposure to COVID-19 and testing them. As there is an incubation period (before symptoms develop and tests are positive) for all infections including COVID-19, screening people for disease is not a failsafe and is only one piece of the assessment," the NSW Health spokesperson said.
Cruise ships have large number of passengers (often thousands), many of whom are older and have chronic medical conditions, respiratory infections (unrelated to COVID-19) among passengers and crew are common on cruise ships, the NSW spokesperson said.
"Cruise ships are responsible for, and have policies to prevent and manage outbreaks of disease on board."
But despite the reassurances, there were a series of mistakes and failings made with respect to the Ruby Princess.
In the weeks following the Ruby Princess debacle, it was often said the Bega Valley had "dodged a bullet" as Eden was being seen as an alternative port of call for cruise ships which were not allowed to visit the Pacific Islands.
The cancellation of the remainder of the cruise season in mid-March was seen as a saving grace from a public health perspective.
In its report the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess pointed to failings by NSW Health on a number of issues.
These included:
"NSW Health should have ensured that cruise ships were aware of the change to the definition of a "suspect case" for COVID-19 made on 10 March. This would have resulted in the identification of such cases on the Ruby Princess. 101 persons fell within the suspect case definition by 18 March, and 120 by the time the ship docked.
"NSW Health should also have ensured that such persons were isolated in cabins. These were serious mistakes by NSW Health.
"The failure to ensure that swabs were collected by an onboard health assessment team in accordance with the requirements of the 9 March Enhanced Procedure was a serious failure by NSW Health.
"The delay in obtaining test results for the swabs taken from the Ruby Princess on the morning of 19 March is inexcusable. Those swabs should have been tested immediately.
"In light of all the information the Expert Panel had, the decision to assess the risk as "low risk" - meaning, in effect, "do nothing" - is as inexplicable as it is unjustifiable. It was a serious mistake."
Earlier this week NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian apologised for the suffering caused as a result of the "horrible" mistakes made by NSW authorities.
It is accepted these mistakes led to spread of COVID-19 from the ship after it docked at Sydney on March 19.