WEBVTT - The Carnival Cruise Ship That Spread Coronavirus Around the World 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.520 I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly. It's time for 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.040 one of this week's feature stories. Well, there were lots 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:09.160 of cruise ship outbreaks early in the COVID nineteen pandemic. None, however, 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:13.319 killed nearly as many as Carnival's Ruby Princess. Twenty eight 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.720 people died of the illness or spread the virus so far, 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:20.799 That's right, Jason and our March nineteen fifty foot ship 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.759 docked in Sydney, Australia after a ten day journey around 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:28.360 New Zealand. Despite the accelerating COVID nineteen pandemic, Australian officials 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.560 cleared the Ruby to disembark, a decision that would have 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:35.440 profound consequences once the two thousand, six hundred plus passengers 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.640 had left the ship and Carol. Unlike the other cruise 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:42.800 ship outbreaks, the Ruby was a devastating incubator, discovered only 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.280 after passengers were off the ship. Many immediately began traveling home, 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:50.440 catching flights before international borders were closed. By the evening 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.320 of Friday, March twenty, contact tracers had managed to reach 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:57.760 only forty four of the five hundred and seventy international guests, 0:00:57.880 --> 0:00:59.720 and then Jason and the months that have followed, the 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:03.160 New South Wales government convened a high profile public inquiry. 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.000 The New South Wales Police Force still engage in a 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.160 lengthy investigation, and lawsuits in Australian California are only now 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:13.119 in their early stages. It all began with a super 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:16.440 spreader of a cruise ship in a time of transformation. 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:20.360 UL knows that trust is necessary for innovation and business success. 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:22.920 We use science and data driven insights to help you 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:26.319 build the trust. Stakeholders demand. The future relies on trust, 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.200 and UEL empowers it. Learn more and access free research 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:33.800 at UL dot com slash Trust Cruise Ship zero. How 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:37.119 were hundreds of people with COVID nineteen allowed to step 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.880 off a Carnival liner in Sydney and return to their 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:44.880 homes around the world By Matthew Campbell. At about six 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:49.560 am on March nine, William Wright, a retired Australian mortgage broker, 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.520 woke up feeling a little off. He had a cough 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:55.200 and his nose was running, though it didn't seem too 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.040 bad in any case, there was no time to linger 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.480 in bed. Right and his wife Flucia, had just docked 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.080 in Sydney after a ten day journey around New Zealand 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.880 on the Ruby Princess, a nine and fifty ft hundred 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:13.160 and forty two cabin vessel operated by Carnivals Princess Cruizes subsidiary. 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.720 The couple's disembarkation time was eight oh five am, so 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.760 they quickly packed up and had breakfast. They arrived on 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.120 schedule in the Explorers Lounge, the nightclub, where they'd been 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.040 told to assemble with other passengers leaving at the same time. 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:31.680 Unloading a cruise ship is a complex process and delays 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.000 aren't unusual, but the Rights waited only a short while 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.800 before being told they could go. They made their way 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.080 through the corridors, past crew members, waving goodbye and offering 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:45.399 high fives. Getting through Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal took only 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:50.120 a few minutes. Despite the accelerating COVID nineteen pandemic, Australian 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:54.880 officials had cleared the Ruby to disembark without restrictions. Passengers 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.320 didn't even need to show their passport, let alone get 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.680 their temperature checked. The only paperwork was an Gracian form 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:04.480 that border guards glanced at before waving people through. By 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:08.040 eight thirty the Rights were on the street, where plus 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:12.120 passengers had begun filtering into taxis, commuter trains, and densely 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:16.520 packed airport buses. I am a regular traveler overseas by 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:20.320 flights and cruises. Right later, said in a statement to investigators, 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.920 I have never experienced something so fast. The decision to 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.880 allow the Ruby to dock would have profound consequences. The 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.520 ship turned out to be the single most important vector 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.800 for the coronavirus in Australia, accounting at one point for 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.520 more than ten percent of the country's cases. In Tasmania, 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.600 two cruisers were the probable source of an outbreak so 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:45.640 severe it forced a major hospital to shut down. Other 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.560 infected passengers flew to the US, where some ultimately died. 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.520 The crew meanwhile became virtual prisoners on their own vessel, 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:58.280 some unable to return home for months. Although multiple cruise 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.440 ships recorded large numbers of COVID nineteen cases in the 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.920 early stages of the pandemic, the Ruby was unique, and 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.880 not simply because twenty eight people died of the illness, 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.920 the most of any voyage to other notorious carnival ships, 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.040 the Diamond Princess, which was sealed off for weeks on 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.280 a Japanese Pier and the Zan Dam, which sailed up 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.240 the entire west coast of South America looking for a 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.880 country that would allow it to dock, were vessels that 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:28.360 guests couldn't leave. The Ruby was the opposite, the incubator 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:31.839 of a devastating outbreak, discovered only after passengers were on 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:36.520 dry land. In an emailed statement, Princess said that our 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.160 highest responsibility and our top priority is always the safety, 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.440 health and well being of our guests, crew members, and 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.080 the people in the communities we visit, and that it 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.640 fully complied with public health guidance throughout the Ruby's travels. 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:54.280 As new information became available from global health authorities, we 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:58.040 continually adapted our policies and protocols to reflect the latest 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.719 updated thinking with respect to COVID eighteen. When the Ruby 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.960 set sail, the company said there was no reported community 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.560 spread of COVID nineteen in Australia that changed emphatically after 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.520 the ship docked. Until then, the country, with its isolated 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.880 geography and excellent health care system, had seemed poised to 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.520 escape the worst of the pandemic. The ensuing fiasco has 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:22.920 prompted a series of efforts to figure out what went 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:27.200 wrong and whom to blame. The ensuing fiasco has prompted 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.799 a series of efforts to figure out what went wrong 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.520 and whom to blame. The new South Wales government convened 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.440 a high profile public inquiry, and police are in the 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:40.840 midst of an investigation led by homicide detectives. Lawsuits by 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.359 passengers are also under way. Everyone is trying to answer 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:48.239 a central question, how at a moment when governments around 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.240 the world were on high alert, where hundreds of infected 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.840 people allowed to stroll off a cruise ship and into 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:57.640 the heart of Sydney. Circular Quay might be the most 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.000 spectacular place in the world to begin as the voyage. 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.120 Lying at the foot of Sydney's financial district, It's bound 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.680 on one side by the Rocks, one of the continent's 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:10.279 earliest European settlements. Beyond that is the soaring arch of 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.839 the Harbor Bridge, and just opposite the white concrete sales 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.720 of the city's famed opera house. None of the thousands 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.520 of passengers who crowded the Quays cruise port to board 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.479 the Ruby on March eighth appeared deterred by the growing 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.800 alarm over the novel coronavirus. Although Australians were getting nervous, 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.360 shops in Sydney had begun to run out of hand 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.200 sanitizer and canned food, and arrivals from China, Iran and 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.320 South Korea had been banned. The country had only a 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.760 handful of cases. In New Zealand, where the thirteen day 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.919 Cruise was heading, there were even fewer. Stephen and Rosie Keel, 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:49.280 retirees from Tasmania, arrived around twelve thirty PM to start 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:53.520 a voyage celebrating Rosie's seventieth birthday. Shortly after they reached 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:57.080 the terminal, Princess made an announcement boarding would be delayed 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.960 until at least the late afternoon. We went up to 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.240 Circular Quay and found a nice little pub. Stephen recalls 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:06.359 the whole discussion, as you can imagine, was about the virus, 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.040 and we unfortunately took the attitude, oh, this won't happen 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.440 to us. The rates are very low. Rosie posed for 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.000 photos with the Ruby's bow overhead. Stephen wanted to edit 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.920 them so the whole would read Princess Rosie. What they 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.160 didn't know was that at dawn that morning, just after 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.160 the ship pulled in from its previous cruise, a government 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:31.320 epidemiologist named Kelly and Wrestler had boarded with seven other staff. 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.680 They carried suitcases full of masks, gloves, and testing swabs. 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.760 The new South Wales Health Agency wanted to screen arriving 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.680 passengers who appeared to be at risk of having COVID nineteen, 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.560 whether because they had reported respiratory symptoms or had recently 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.280 been in an affected country. Wrestler was shocked by the 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:53.120 number she found gathered in a dining room, more than 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.840 three hundred in all. She and her team handed out masks, 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.960 took temperatures, and asked about travel histories. They decided to 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.960 test nine people for the virus and allow the others 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.640 to disembark until the results came in. A doctor told 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:11.320 the crew new passengers shouldn't be allowed on board. At 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.360 five thirty p m. The tests came back all negative, 0:08:14.880 --> 0:08:17.360 the Ruby was cleared to depart on its next cruise. 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.480 Boarding proceeded, and the ship left its berth late in 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:23.320 the evening, easing past the Opera House and out of 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.160 the harbor. Some guests watched from their balconies the lights 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.680 of the city fading as they reached the open Pacific 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.280 Diane Fish, a travel agent from Delray Beach, Florida, would 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.360 have been content to spend the two day passage to 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.000 New Zealand sleeping. She'd been on the road since late February, 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.600 leading a group of clients through a packed itinerary around Australia, 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.200 but the cruise was part of the trip, so she 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:49.760 settled into her usual roles as tour director and social convener, 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:53.199 checking out the on board entertainment and making sure everyone 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.640 was having a good time. The bad news from overseas 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:00.280 was mounting. Italy had imposed a nationwide locked down on 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:04.719 March nine, and President Trump soon imposed an unprecedented ban 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:09.040 on European arrivals to the United States. Fish wasn't too anxious, 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.880 given that she was thousands of miles away from any 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.800 known outbreak. It just did not occur to me that 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:17.480 we weren't safe where we were, she says. But she 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.240 did ask a colleague to be prepared to help rearrange 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.320 her group's travel if the cruise was halted in New Zealand. 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.840 There was plenty to occupy passengers on the way across 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.120 the Tasman Sea. Launched in two thousand and eight, the 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.520 Ruby was far from Princess's newest or biggest chip, but 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:37.800 it was still impressive. It had nineteen decks, four swimming pools, 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.000 and dozens of restaurants and attractions, many of them arrayed 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.080 around a central atrium called the Piazza, inspired, as Princess's 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:49.280 marketing copy optimistically put it, by the vibrant squares of Europe. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:54.000 The Rubies Italian captain Giorgio Pomata, was the commodore of 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:58.320 the entire Princess fleet. After arriving in New Zealand, the 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:02.080 ship passed first through fior Land, a region of spectacular 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.640 mountain bays in the far southwest, before stopping in Dunedin. 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.400 The Ruby then began port hopping northward, with the final 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.719 stop in the Bay of Islands planned for March eighteenth. 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.120 After arriving in New Zealand, the ship passed first through 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.480 fiord Land, a region of spectacular mountain bays in the 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.760 far southwest, before stopping in Dunedin. The Ruby then began 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.600 port hopping northward, with the final stop in the Bay 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:31.160 of Islands planned for March eighteenth. On March fifteenth, the 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.920 Ruby stopped in Napier, on the edge of North Island 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:37.640 Wine Country, and throngs of passengers spilled into town, hitting 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.560 souvenir shops and piling onto tour buses. The same day, 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.880 Australia's Prime Minister, Scott Morrison announced that his country was 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:49.280 significantly stepping up its efforts to keep out the coronavirus. 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.959 Everyone arriving from overseas would have to spend fourteen days 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.560 in isolation, no matter where they were traveling from. Cruise 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.920 ship arrivals from foreign ports would be banned. As of midnight, 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:03.319 no one at Carnival's regional office was sure what the 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.440 announcement meant for vessels such as the Ruby, which was 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:10.040 carrying a large number of Australian passengers, but that evening 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:13.080 an announcement went out over the ship's public address system 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.360 the crews would head straight back to Sydney. Stephen Keel, 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.320 an accomplished sailor, had been tracking the Ruby's progress online, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.120 and he soon noticed the bridge crew was flooring it, 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.040 traveling at twenty four or twenty five knots instead of 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:28.160 the eighteen or so on the way to New Zealand. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.160 In the aftermath of the Diamond Princess, Carnival managers were 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.320 well aware of what could happen to the ship if 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.560 it was delayed. We don't want to get yourselves stranded 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:40.280 anywhere or have a protest at a port due to 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.320 cruise ships in the region. A Sydney based executive route 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:48.640 to Commodore Pomata. The passenger experience, meanwhile, remained largely unchanged, 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:53.560 with social distancing still a novel concept outside of China. Restaurants, 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:57.439 bars and other attractions stayed open. Crowded St. Patrick's Day 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:01.520 celebrations went ahead. Back in sid Me, officials were assessing 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.440 whether and how to let the Ruby dock. The state 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.440 government's criteria for determining whether a cruise ship could be 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:11.000 carrying the virus were based on where passengers had traveled previously, 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.240 where they'd been on their current trip, and crucially, what 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.719 share of them had reported influenza like illness or i 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.200 l I, generally understood to refer to a fever and 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.360 respiratory symptoms. If the number exceeded one percent of the 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.920 guests and crew, and if onboard tests for influenza showed 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.240 that not to be the culprit, a vessel might be 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.160 deemed high risk and everyone kept on the ship until 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.920 coronavirus swabs could be tested by an onshore lab. A 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.719 medium risk landing, such as the Ruby's March eighth the 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.359 Rival flagged in part because some passengers had been in Singapore, 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:48.280 involved a more flexible menu of responses, whereas in a 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:52.600 low risk scenario passengers could disembark normally. On the morning 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.280 of March eighteenth, the day before the Ruby was due 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:59.360 to arrive, Wrestler, the government epidemiologist, was copied on an 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:03.160 email from the ship's senior doctor, Ilse von Watsdorff. It 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.240 answered a list of questions about passenger travel histories and conditions, 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.319 Noting that medical staff had collected swabs for a few 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:15.720 cases of febrile influenza test negative individuals. Von Wattsdorff had 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.840 attached the required spreadsheet listing the names, conditions, and temperatures 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.560 of passengers with flu like symptoms. The decision on how 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.160 to treat the Ruby lay not with Wrestler, but with 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.480 a separate panel of public health experts. They didn't find 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.840 the numbers alarming. Many patients had come to the medical 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.280 clinic during the journey back, but that might have been 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:39.320 explained by announcements instructing passengers with coughs or other respiratory 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.679 issues to get checked, rather than because the virus was spreading. 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.000 No one had recently been to the highest risk countries, 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:48.400 and the I ll I ratio was a bit below 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.040 one percent, with a considerable number of people testing positive 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.880 for the flu. The panel determined that the ruby was 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.840 low risk, but advised that swabs from some of the 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.120 symptomatic passengers be tested for corona iris just in case. 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.360 On board, things were getting weird. As the boat neared 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.760 Port Percy, Anderson, a seventy five year old from Queensland, 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:11.439 entered an elevator to find a heavy set, younger man 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.720 in a hoodie zipped all the way up to cover 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.320 his mouth and nose. The woman with him was wearing 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.680 a surgical mask and both appeared to be having trouble breathing. 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.840 Anderson and his wife Esther, exchanged a glance but didn't 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:28.720 say anything. He later told investigators. Another passenger, Paul Reid, 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:30.840 recalled going to the clinic with a cough and a 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.680 sore throat. He said a doctor swabbed his nose and 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:37.400 soon told him you don't have corona. Reid assumed that 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.320 meant he was negative for COVID nineteen, but the medical 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:44.520 team had no ability to perform such a test. Fish 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.520 was still hoping to relax. She booked a treatment at 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:51.760 the SPA in anticipation of the long journey back to Florida. Afterwards, 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:55.520 she felt strange, stiff, and so tired that I didn't 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.000 want to get up the next day. She figured it 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:00.320 was the fatigue of the trip catching up to her. 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.880 Late on March eighteenth, a call came into Vessel Traffic 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:08.800 Services VTS, the office responsible for managing movements in Sydney Harbor. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:11.760 Someone from the State Ambulance Service was on the line 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:16.160 requesting an update on the Ruby apport. Manager Cameron butchert 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:20.760 found the call unusual. Ambulances were frequently dispatched to cruise 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:24.680 arrivals given the medical problems that could befall elderly passengers, 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.040 but the office rarely got a heads up. Butcher called 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:31.080 back to find out more. We've got two bookings here 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.840 for Carnival Australia for a cruise ship that's coming in 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.880 at two thirty with two suspected corona pations on board. 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.480 An ambulance coordinator told him, we just wanted to know 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.240 if the ship was actually coming into port and if 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.880 they're allowed to disembark. The ambulance officials said they'd reached 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:51.160 out to their contact at Carnival but got only voicemail. Alarmed, 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.560 Butcher hung up and started calling people at Carnival. No 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.560 one answered. He emailed a colleague and asked him to 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:00.400 stop the Ruby from docking. Advised the ship that their 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.320 booking is denied. He wrote there to have their agent 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:08.560 contact Sydney VTS urgently. Port officials ultimately reached Carnival staff. 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:13.040 According to investigative documents, they said they'd requested the ambulances 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.840 for a passenger with severe leg pain and another with 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:20.960 cardiac trouble, not because of suspected coronavirus infections. Given that 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.360 and the Health Agency's designation, the port authority agreed that 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:27.720 the Ruby was clear to land. At two thirty am, 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:32.240 it moored at Circular Quay. Disembarkation would begin first thing 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.760 in the morning. By nine a m. The sidewalk outside 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.240 the terminal was dense with passengers. Anderson and his wife 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.680 had a flight later that day to Brisbane, so they 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.360 took a packed bus to Sydney Airport. They were in 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.479 the check in queue when they noticed a commotion behind them. 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:51.320 A woman had collapsed, Anderson immediately recognized her and the 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:53.760 man kneeling at her side as the pair he'd seen 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.760 laboring to breathe in the Ruby Princess Elevator. Paramedics soon 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.440 arrived with a stretcher. Phi had also boarded a bus 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.960 to the airport with other passengers. I sat down, leaving 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.679 some space, she says, and I hear the lady in 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.760 front of me cough. Two seconds after that, the guy 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.919 behind me coughs, then the guy to my right, and 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:18.720 I said to my husband, everyone on this bus is sick. Meanwhile, 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:21.560 Wrestler was waiting for the results of the swab tests 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:24.119 from the Ruby, most of them for passengers who had 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.520 already scattered. That afternoon, she logged on to an online 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.359 lab portal to check if they were done. They weren't. 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.879 They hadn't even been registered in the system. She phoned 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:37.119 the lab and was told they'd be tested soon. Early 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.760 the next morning, she logged in again. Three of the 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.000 swabs she saw were positive. One was from a crew 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:46.439 member still on board, another was from a Tasmanian guest. 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:49.400 The third was from a woman named Leslie Bacon, who 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:51.159 had been one of the patients taken off in an 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:55.320 ambulance suffering from leg pain. Von Wattsdorff had told health 0:17:55.320 --> 0:18:00.000 authorities that both passengers also had respiratory symptoms. The ruby 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.480 Stler was learning too late, had been anything but low risk. 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.520 The state government rushed to deploy contact tracers, and officials 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.159 convened conference calls to figure out what had gone wrong. 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:14.119 Time was growing short to contain the spread. Towards the 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:17.439 end of the day, Wrestler noticed something odd. Some of 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.119 the people who'd been tested for coronavirus weren't on the 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:24.000 list of symptomatic passengers and crew sent on March eighteenth. 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.520 By this point, there were at least four positive results, 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.720 including one for the other patients who'd left in an ambulance. 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.760 Wrestler sent to WhatsApp message to von Watsdorff. Do you 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.920 have an updated a r I log, she asked, referring 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.680 to acute respiratory illness. Some of the later people swabbed 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.160 aren't on the one I have. Did you add any 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.280 more patients after you sent it to me? Von Wattsdorff 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.960 responded six minutes later, I'll send it now. Sorry, I 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.320 forgot that. The last one was from the morning. It 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:57.840 was so crazy. The updated numbers weren't drastically higher, but 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.000 they did differ in one crucial respect. The I ll 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:04.480 I ratio was almost one point three percent, well above 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:07.480 the one percent threshold that indicated a higher level of risk. 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.200 The Ruby had also been updating a separate government platform 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:15.320 with information on reported passenger illnesses until early evening on 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:19.200 March eighteenth, but Wrestler later testified that she wasn't aware 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:23.000 of that data. I keep on asking myself what I 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:26.080 could have done better to protect people, Von Watsdorff wrote 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:30.680 to Wrestler that night. Wrestler replied almost immediately, Yeah, there 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:35.600 will be more cases, probably a lot. The Rubies passengers 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:39.080 were all over Australia and beyond, having in some cases 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:43.440 caught the final flights before international boarders closed. Carnival had 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.080 provided officials with a list of emails and phone numbers 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.520 so everyone could be reached, but the details weren't all correct, 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:52.320 and some passengers didn't pick up their phones or had 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.600 turned them off. By the evening of Friday, March twentie, 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.040 contact tracers had managed to reach only forty four of 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:03.440 the five seven the international guests they'd tried over the weekend. 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:08.000 Quantas Airways reported to officials that one seventy close contacts 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.760 from the Ruby Princess had flown to the US on 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.000 March twenty feet. It was only the following night that 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.000 the Australian Border Force put Ruby passengers on a list 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.840 that would prompt a do not board alert at check 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:23.359 in desks. Fish had been unaware of the positive cases 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:25.440 when she boarded her flight back to the US on 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:28.720 March nineteenth. She found out only when she landed in 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.520 San Francisco for her connection to Florida, and some of 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:35.520 her group got contact tracing calls. As it happened, she'd 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:40.639 begun feeling sick, herself really sick. The airport was almost deserted, 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.600 and she found an isolated bench, laid down her head 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:46.399 and went to sleep. I knew I had a fever. 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.639 I just sat away from everyone else, and I wanted 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:52.920 to get tested as soon as possible, she says. After 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:56.800 getting home, Fish slept for almost twelve hours straight. When 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:58.960 she woke up, she found an urgent care center that 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:03.280 could test her. The results confirmed her suspicions. She was positive. 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.399 Her husband turned out to be as well. I was 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.680 in bed for ten days, she says, it knocks you out. 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:14.159 All you wanna do is sleep and sweat. Positive tests 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:16.920 from the Ruby were popping up all over Australia too, 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.639 right the former mortgage broker thought he had a cold 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.159 when he reached his home south of Sydney, so he 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.359 took some flue pills and an antihistamine. Two days later, 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:28.439 a friend who had also been on the cruise called 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:30.959 her husband had been taken to the hospital in an 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:36.080 ambulance suffering from complications of COVID nineteen. The rights got tested. 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:42.280 Both were positive. They recovered without complications. Another two Ruby passengers, 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:45.679 Graham Lake, a seventy two year old Vietnam veteran, and 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:49.240 his wife Carla, were self isolating at home near Brisbane. 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.119 They'd heard on March twentieth that a friend who'd been 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:55.959 on board had tested positive for the coronavirus. Carla had 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:59.480 a dry cough herself, but that wasn't unusual. It was 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:03.240 a sight of act of medication she took for her arthritis. Still, 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.320 the couple went to a makeshift clinic outside a local hospital. 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:09.399 The staff wouldn't give Graham a test because he didn't 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:13.000 have symptoms, but Carla got one. She also had a fever, 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:15.600 and the hospital kept her to wait for the results. 0:22:16.320 --> 0:22:19.639 The next morning, Carla called to telegram she'd tested positive. 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:23.879 He soon noticed he was also getting sick, lousy, like 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:26.880 a cold, heavy in the chest. He later told police 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:29.840 it seemed to be getting worse, and the next week 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.720 an ambulance brought him back to the hospital. He had 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:35.800 the virus too. The next day he was moved into 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:38.879 the same room as Carla, who was coughing terribly. He 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:42.480 said it was shocking. Soon she was in the intensive 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.760 care unit where she could be given more oxygen. Soon 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.240 she was in the intensive care unit where she could 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.560 get more oxygen. Graham moved with her, taking a bed 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.480 a few feet away. In the early hours of March 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:57.320 twenty nine, he stopped hearing the sound of her breathing. 0:22:57.960 --> 0:22:59.840 He got up and took her hand to feel for 0:22:59.880 --> 0:23:02.640 a pulse. I could tell you then that she had 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:05.919 passed away, he said. He stayed with her for a while, 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:08.919 then went back to his own bed, unsure what to 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:12.359