An Irish musician trapped for a month in her cabin on a virus-hit cruise ship in Sydney is on her way home.
Kate Heneghan, 24, was among over 1,000 crew quarantined on the Ruby Princess which had more than 600 Covid-19 cases - and was linked to at least 21 deaths.
She was finally allowed to leave the liner with her three Emererld Tide quarter bandmates, an Irish engineer and 55 international crew members on Tuesday.
The ship was on its way to New Zealand on March 16 when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern closed all ports and blocked the liner entering the country.
The Ruby Princess was then forced to sail to Sydney in neighbouring Australia where 2,700 passengers - many of whom had contracted the deadly bug - were allowed to disembark.
Kate, from Castlebar, Co Mayo, her fellow band members and all the crew, were quarantined and isolated on March 21.
The musician said on Wednesday that she had been allowed to finally leave after an extensive screening and testing process. She was delighted to test negative.
She said: “I’m currently sitting here in Sydney Airport awaiting my first flight to Doha, my first flight of two today.
“So very exciting times for us Irish here in the airport.
“We disembarked from the ship two days ago and we were quarantined that night into a hotel in Sydney.”
She told Radio 1’s Ryan Tubridy Show:“It was a really surreal experience coming off the boat.
“There was the Australian Border Force there, the Australian Defence Force, New South Wales police, media, nurses, doctors and a really strict sanitation process coming off.
“We were given a police escort then to the hotel.”
The Ruby Princess will sail for its port of origin in the Philippines on Thursday.
Kate added:“The Department of Foreign Affairs were excellent and really put pressure on to get us off the boat before it sailed away so we’re absolutely thrilled.
“We all had to be tested and retested because a few of our band members were positive.”
