‘Chaos and confusion’ was how Vanitha Rengaraj, 60, founder of the Sharanalayam orphanage in Coimbatore, described the atmosphere on board the cruise ship A Sara, which has been moored on the banks of the Nile in Egypt after several passengers and crew contracted COVID-19.
Ms. Rengaraj and her husband R. Rengaraj, 62, were quarantined on the ship for nearly one week. “We planned to spend only three nights on the ship,” she told The Hindu as she recollected her experiences upon returning to Coimbatore on Thursday.
The couple were among 18 Indians who boarded the cruise ship as part of a trip to Egypt on March 3. The next day, officials on the ship announced that more than 30 passengers had contracted COVID-19, including one among the 18 Indians. The passenger, from Chennai, was taken to a hospital in Alexandria. The ship, which had over 100 passengers from various countries, was anchored 20 km away from the city of Luxor, she said.
The rest of the passengers were asked to not leave their rooms on the ship, she said. Ms. Rengaraj said she suffered from heart conditions and hypertension and did not have access to proper medication, and appropriate food was not available on the ship. She said she mostly ate fruits and had fruit juice. “I lost hope on the second day itself,” Ms. Rengaraj said. With all the 17 Indian passengers then testing negative for COVID-19, medical certificates were sent to the Indian Embassy in Egypt for approval.
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Following an intervention from the Embassy, the 17 Indians were asked to leave the cruise ship on March 11. Ms. Rengaraj and her husband went to the airport in Luxor and reached Coimbatore on Thursday via Cairo, Mumbai and Hyderabad on four different flights. The Chennai passenger has reportedly tested negative in the Alexandria hospital and is expected to return soon, she said.
“Being a lecturer of history, I have always wanted to visit Egypt and see the Nile. But the Nile was underneath me [on board the ship] and I could not enjoy it,” Ms. Rengaraj concluded.
