Australia’s New South Wales Premier apologises for Ruby Princess Covid-19 fiasco
SYDNEY, Aug 17, 2020, 9News. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has offered an unreserved apology to the families affected by the Ruby Princess fiasco, which has been linked to more than 20 deaths and more than 800 positive cases around Australia, 9News reported.
“Can I now apologise unreservedly to anybody who suffered as a result of the mistakes that were outlined in the report undertaken by individuals within the Health Department or the Health Agency and I extend that apology unreservedly,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“In particular to the 62 people who got the virus in secondly or tertiary way.
“Those 62 people who weren’t on the ship, but somehow contracted the virus as a consequence of that disembarkation.”
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant also offered an apology.
“I would like to express my apologies for the impact on the mistakes of the health and wellbeing of the community,” Dr Chant said.
There were many lessons that had been learned from the Ruby Princess situation, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.
He also thanked high-profile barrister Bret Walker, who led the 320-page report into the Ruby Princess cruise debacle, which was released on Friday after a Special Commission of Inquiry.
“I’m also sorry that people’s lives have been impacted by decisions in this 100-year pandemic,” Mr Hazzard said.
“There were learnings obviously immediately from the circumstances which, as the premier has highlighted, led to another 14, I think it was, ships not being allowed to come into Sydney.
“I also want to stress that in this one-in-100 year pandemic that there are learnings everyday by NSW Health and those learnings have continued to enable us to get to where we have got today which obviously, in terms of the pandemic, is a positive position.
“Having said that, I do ask the community to listen to the words of Dr Chant and NSW Health and certainly to work with us to make sure that we can try and achieve an even better outcome for the entire community.”
The report described an expert panel’s decision to deem the ship low risk “as inexplicable as it is unjustifiable”.
“In light of all the information the Expert Panel had, the decision to assess the risk as ‘low risk’ – meaning, in effect, ‘do nothing’ – is as inexplicable as it is unjustifiable,” the report reads.
“It was a serious mistake.”
Mr Walker found the delay collecting and testing coronavirus swabs was “a serious failure by NSW Health”.
“The delay in obtaining test results for the swabs taken from the Ruby Princess on the morning of 19 March is inexcusable,” the report reads.