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Crew members with COVID-like symptoms onboard another WA-bound ship

A Chinese bulk carrier ship headed for a West Australian port is suspected of having crew members with COVID-19 onboard.

Four crew members out of the 20 onboard the Darya Krishna are reported as having COVID-like symptoms, one of whom is very unwell.

It’s the fourth ship out of Indonesia in recent weeks with positive cases on board, according to WA Premier Mark McGowan.

The vessel is due to drop anchor in Gage Roads tomorrow, with the plan to dock in Fremantle Harbor in the coming days. It departed Singapore last Sunday and is now making its way towards the WA coast after leaving virus-stricken Indonesia.

Mr McGowan said WA Health authorities were monitoring the ship and they would have a teleconference call with crew members today to assess the situation as there were no testing capabilities onboard.

He said while the state government didn’t want ships coming to WA with infected crew members, it was a federal decision to let ships anchor.

“Of course our preference with these sorts of things is that the ship leaves as soon as possible to reduce the risk and set the right example because we don’t want ships coming with infected crew members,” he said.

“This is the fourth ship out of Indonesia recent weeks with positive cases onboard, we think are positive cases, it’s obviously a growing problem. That’s why I raised it at national cabinet, that’s why I wrote to the Prime Minister, doing all we can to try and deal with this difficult situation.”

Ultimately the decision of whether Darya Krishna continued sailing or docked in WA was a federal one, Mr McGowan said.

“The main thing was risk and I don’t want risk, we want to try and reduce the risk of COVID spreading as much as possible,” he said.

Mr McGowan said the situation in Indonesia was “terribly traumatic” with thousands of deaths every day so shipping companies needed to step up and implement proper protocols to ensure the crew does not go onshore there.

“One of the things we’ve done before is say to those ships that have COVID-positive people on board sail away, and you send a very strong message to the shipping companies that they need to prevent COVID getting onboard their ships,” he said.

“We had the issues last year with Filipino ships that had been in the Philippines, and the protocols were improved there. But I prefer this ship just sail, that would be the easiest and least risky option for Western Australia and also sends a message to the shipping companies to keep their crews safe.”

It comes just a week after the BBC California berthed at Fremantle, with more than half its crew members testing positive for COVID-19.

The BBC California had originally been due to berth at Kwinana but was redirected at the request of the captain because crew members had started showing cold-like symptoms.

WA health authorities tested the seafarers for the disease on Monday via rapid PCR testing, with 10 of its 14 passengers returning positive results.

All 10 crew members remained onboard while three others who returned negative results were placed in hotel quarantine in Perth to prevent them from being infected.

One passenger who remained onboard the ship was a critically-needed engineer who was placed in separate quarters to quarantine from those infected.

The BBC California had also visited ports in Indonesia before docking in Fremantle.

Another vessel that recently visited Indonesia, the Mattina container ship, also had a COVID-19 outbreak after departing Fremantle bound for New Zealand.

International ships with COVID-infected passengers have been an ongoing issue for West Australia, with Premier Mark McGowan raising the issue at the national cabinet meeting on Friday.

Mr McGowan said the state and federal transport ministers agreed to determine what could be done in conjunction with big ship companies to prevent crew members from wandering around Indonesian streets.

“The shipping companies need to put effort into keeping their crews on board when they’re in Indonesian ports, and so that’s the approach we’re going to adopt with Commonwealth and the transport ministers and the shipping companies to make sure we do everything we can to stop the transmission of the virus from Indonesia to ships that then subsequently come to Western Australia,” he said.

“The prime minister was very good about it and he acknowledges it’s a major problem.

“If they have crews that are COVID-infected then their ships will stop operating and they’ll lose money. The whole idea of making sure there’s proper arrangements by the shipping companies, when their ships are in Indonesia to stop the cruise getting infected, helps everyone – the crews, the companies, and especially Western Australia.”

WA recorded no new COVID-19 cases overnight. There are now nine active cases monitored by WA Health: one case is in hotel quarantine and eight cases remain aboard the BBC California currently berthed at Fremantle Port.

All 10 positive COVID-19 cases from the vessel, including two that are no longer active, have now been confirmed as the Delta strain.
Source: The Age

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