Via the Sydney Morning Herald, where it’s 2:20 a.m. on Monday: Cruisers’ fate hangs on one test. Excerpt:
The fate of more than 1700 passengers and crew aboard the cruise ship Pacific Dawn cruise ship hung in the balance last night as health authorities awaited one swine flu test result from a laboratory in Brisbane.
Swabs taken from 10 passengers all proved negative last night, but the results of one swab, tested by Queensland authorities, were still unknown.
“If the swab … comes back negative, everyone on board the Pacific Dawn will be able to leave the boat in the morning and return home or continue their onward travel without delay or restriction,” the NSW chief medical officer, Kerry Chant, said last night.
But if the result was positive, all passengers would be required to wear masks and some would be ordered into quarantine.
Swine flu has now struck in every state and territory, prompting authorities to consider moving to the next alert level, which could see mass gatherings banned, public transport restrictions and police called in to guard medical supplies.
“If the increase in numbers continues at the rate that it has, of course an assessment will be made whether we need to move to the next phase of the disease plan,” the federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, said yesterday.
