(CNN) – A cruise ship with hundreds of COVID-positive passengers docked in Sydney, Australia, issuing the country’s highest COVID alert for those aboard, according to the New South Wales government.
The Majestic Princess cruise ship began seeing an increase in positive cases halfway through its 12-day journey, Carnival Australia president Marguerite Fitzgerald told reporters in a media briefing on Saturday.
The ship had 4,600 guests and crew on board, according to CNN affiliate Nine News.
After mass testing of 3,300 guests, approximately 800 tested positive for COVID-19, according to Fitzgerald’s briefing, adding that a small number of crew also tested positive.
“All positive cases were mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and those guests isolated in their staterooms and were then separated from non-impacted guests,” parent company Princess Cruises representative Briana Latter told CNN.
Cruise operators separately escorted those who were positive off the ship and advised them to complete a five-day isolation period, CNN affiliate Nine News reported.
Those who were negative were permitted to leave the ship, given they obtained a negative rapid antigen test within 24 hours of disembarking, a New South Wales Health statement read.
“Carnival has advised NSW Health that they are assisting passengers with COVID-19 to make safe onward travel arrangements,” the report further stated.
Latter attributed the positive cases aboard the Majestic Princess as being “reflective of an increase in community transmission in Australia.”
Recently, Australia has seen an uptick in coronavirus cases, leading to more caution from within the government.
New South Wales has seen 19,800 new cases of COVID-19 and 22 deaths over the past week, according to data from the New South Wales Ministry of Health.
The Majestic Princess cruise ship has since departed Sydney on her next voyage to Melbourne and Tasmania.
The outbreak on the Majestic Princess isn’t the first Carnival Corporation cruise to be affected by a COVID-19 outbreak. At least three other ships within the company’s Princess fleet – the Ruby Princess, Diamond Princess, and Grand Princess – also experienced outbreaks earlier in the pandemic.
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