All 66 COVID-19 positive passengers on the Cordelia cruise ship had been evacuated and taken for quarantine in Mumbai hotels, said authorities on Wednesday.
While they were offered to be taken to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s COVID-19 facility in Byculla, all of them opted for hotel quarantine and are lodged in hotels at their own expense.
The passengers who had tested negative in Goa are onboard the ship as their RT-PCR reports are awaited. Those testing negative will be sent in home quarantine.
The BMC on Tuesday had made it clear that they would not permit anyone to disembark from the Mumbai-Goa ship which was carrying 1,400 persons on board.
The civic body started screening passengers from Tuesday evening onwards once the cruise ship reached Mumbai around 6:30 p.m.
The ship was turned back from Mormugao in South Goa at 11.30 p.m. on Monday after 27 of the infected passengers had allegedly refused to disembark. They were reportedly passengers with families and their kin who had tested negative.
In view of the steep rise in COVID-19 cases across the State, the South Goa District Administration had ordered the ship along with all passengers be sent back to Mumbai with COVID-19 positive passengers isolated from the others.
