As all passenger ships are now banned from entering South African ports, the MSC Orchestra is making her way back today after a 5-day cruise.
Some criticised management for setting sail amid the coronavirus outbreak, however, MSC Orchestra has issued a statement in which they say that all regulations were followed.
The cruiseliner departed from Durban on Monday 16 March as part of its current season. The vessel did so after receiving confirmation from all authorized persons that the port was open and operating as normal. In addition, the vessel was cleared for departure by all relevant port authorities.
After MSC Orchestra had already left Durban, on 18 March the South African government published new regulations to ban all passenger cruise ships coming from international waters at a number of ports.
MSC Orchestra has remained at sea during her entire cruise as the ship’s only scheduled call along her itinerary, a visit to Pomene in Mozambique, was cancelled. The vessel will not call anywhere before her final port of disembarkation, Durban.
There are 3,337 people on board the ship; 2,408 passengers and 929 crew. The numbers include 2,366 South African passengers and 132 South African crew members. The gazetted regulation 3.2a does advise that the disembarkation of returning South African citizens and permanent residents are allowed.
Approximately 99% of the passengers on board MSC Orchestra are either South African citizens or foreigners with permanent residence in South Africa and who live in the country. There are no foreign nationals on board who have travelled from a high-risk area in the last 14 days.
All passengers and crew are in good health. There have been no cases of any passenger reporting to the Medical Centre with any flu-like symptoms during the ship’s time at sea since she set sail on Monday.
The vessel has submitted to the relevant authorities a disembarkation plan that will only permit 100 passengers at a time to disembark from the ship. This will be done in order to comply with regulation preventing more than 100 persons from gathering in a sea port precinct.
Once they have cleared Port Health and Immigration, passengers will leave the terminal and the next 100 passengers will disembark until the ship has been completely emptied.
With this cruise, MSC Orchestra officially ends her current season in South Africa.
Also read: Quarantined ships in CT harbour cleared
Image: Twitter/OhShipSA
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