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800 Covid-positive cruise goers disembark at Sydney

<p dir="ltr">Approximately 800 people who have tested positive to COVID-19 disembarked from the cruise ship Majestic Princess in Sydney over the weekend.</p> <p dir="ltr">The 4,400 passengers and crew disembarked at the end of a 12-night round-trip to New Zealand, with passengers who tested positive instructed not to take public transport after departing Sydney’s Circular Quay.</p> <p dir="ltr">In a statement, operator Carnival Cruise Line said that the positive cases - around 20 percent of the ship’s population - were kept separate from those who tested negative while disembarking.</p> <p dir="ltr">"All guests disembarking have undertaken a rapid antigen test in the past 24 hours, which will determine how they will disembark the ship,” the statement said.</p> <p dir="ltr">Carnival Australia president Marguerite Fitzgerald said at a press conference on Saturday that cases of Covid began to rise about halfway through the trip and that everyone who tested positive were asymptomatic or experiencing mild symptoms.</p> <p dir="ltr">In a statement shared with <em><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/majestic-princess-cruise-covid-coronavirus-docks-in-sydney/ea034a4c-9a10-42ed-a9e5-d720f0dddf71" target="_blank" rel="noopener">9News</a></em>, Princess Cruises Senior Vice President Stuart Allison said staff were also assisting those who tested positive to find accommodations to help them continue to isolate.</p> <p dir="ltr">Fitzgerald told <em><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/13/australia/australia-covid-majestic-princess-cruise-passengers-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a></em> that the cruise line has been using “the most rigorous and strict measures which go well above current guidelines”, with staff and passengers being tested for Covid before boarding and a requirement for 95 percent of guests over the age of 12 to be vaccinated.</p> <p dir="ltr">She said that the more than 50 voyages made by Carnival Australia and over 100,000 guests onboard have been “unimpacted by Covid”.</p> <p dir="ltr">“However, the emergence of COVID in the community has meant we have seen a rise in positive cases on the last three voyages,” she added.</p> <p dir="ltr">The Majestic Princess has since travelled to Melbourne with 220 people from the original cruise, per <em><a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/cruise-ship-carrying-800-covid-positive-passengers-docks-in-sydney/pf4suhrn6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SBS News</a></em>.</p> <p dir="ltr">In response to the news, many have taken to social media to share their thoughts, with some questioning why it was happening again after the Ruby Princess allowed Covid-positive passengers to disembark in Sydney in March 2020.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Didn’t… didn’t we already do this?” one person <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewPStreet/status/1591024965045800962?s=20&amp;t=pkMBODwCjEj2M4w43AVkkg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Back to square one. That’s how it started,” another <a href="https://twitter.com/DarcyAmaroo/status/1591166905435721729" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Why would you still go on a crowded cruise ship with Covid still spreading through the population?”</p> <p dir="ltr">“As the Majestic Princess saga unfolds, it seems not just Covid is in the Circular Quay air, but also a real sense of déjà poo - the feeling that sh*t has happened before,” a third <a href="https://twitter.com/sahar_adatia/status/1591325017421541376" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">The news comes as Australia begins to experience a fourth wave of Covid, with <em><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/11/covid-19-case-numbers-exploding-across-australia-as-fourth-wave-takes-off" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Guardian</a></em> reporting that 58,000 cases have been recorded across the country in the past week.</p> <p dir="ltr">The Queensland government has moved the state to an “amber alert” in response to the uptick in cases, while NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said the wave is expected to peak before Christmas.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The wave is taking off with some trajectory, it will be quite a steep wave and hopefully the decline will be equally as steep,” she said on Friday.</p> <p dir="ltr">“There is a sense that the wave may well peak before Christmas and we may be on the decline [by then].</p> <p dir="ltr">“But the message is clear … this is an increased risk period for Covid, so please, now is the time to take those protective behaviours.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Meanwhile, New Zealand has reported 21,595 community cases of the virus in the past week, with computational biologist Dr David Welch telling the <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-health-officials-to-provide-weekly-update-on-cases/VKB7XS4BIVCIBK7GL3BVEDM43M/">NZ Herald</a> that the country may be “at or near a peak” in cases.</p> <p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b9f7e5dd-7fff-87d1-9683-376d52d18481"></span></p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

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Indian airline cracks the code to halving disembark times

<p dir="ltr">A low-cost Indian airline has come up with a game-changing solution to get passengers off planes quicker during disembarking. </p> <p dir="ltr">A lot of planes rely on one door at the front of the plane to get travellers off the aircraft when they arrive at their destination.</p> <p dir="ltr">This often means passengers at the back of the plane have to let hundreds of others off the plane before they get the chance to disembark in an orderly fashion. </p> <p dir="ltr">To combat the wait, some airlines, including Virgin Australia and Qantas-owned Jetstar, regularly allow passengers to disembark from a set of stairs at the rear of the plane. </p> <p dir="ltr">But India’s largest carrier IndiGo has gone one step further and has introduced a third door for passengers to exit through.</p> <p dir="ltr">They have utilised the door in the middle of the plane, which is only ever used in an emergency, as another exit for passengers. </p> <p dir="ltr">The carrier reckons it could almost halve the time it takes to get passengers off the plane from up to 13 minutes to a mere seven minutes.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The new Three-Point Disembarkation process will be carried out from two forward and one rear exit ramp, making IndiGo the first airline to use this process,” an IndiGo spokesman told India’s <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/indigo-introduces-process-for-faster-de-boarding-of-passengers-101659598634339.html">Hindustan Times</a>. </p> <p dir="ltr">A video uploaded by Indian business journalist Sumit Chaturvedi shows the new process with passengers leaving an IndiGo Airbus A320 aircraft via the various ramps.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Indian carrier Indigo today introduced a new Three Point Disembarkation <br />which it claims will enable its customers to exit the aircraft faster than before. The new process <br />will be carried out from two forward and one rear exit ramp. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IndiGo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IndiGo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ChhaviLeekha?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChhaviLeekha</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/IndiGo6E?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IndiGo6E</a> <a href="https://t.co/n7Xajg8dk0">pic.twitter.com/n7Xajg8dk0</a></p> <p>— Sumit Chaturvedi (@joinsumit) <a href="https://twitter.com/joinsumit/status/1555098794609455104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 4, 2022</a></p></blockquote> <p dir="ltr">“An A320 aircraft usually takes around 13 minutes for its passengers to de-board the aircraft. However, the new process will make the drill faster and will reduce the disembarkation time from 13 minutes to seven minutes,” an IndiGo spokesman said.</p> <p dir="ltr">As well as being a major bonus for anxious passengers who are eager to make a swift exit from the plane, the changes could also greatly help the airline. </p> <p dir="ltr">The quicker passengers can leave the plane, the shorter the turnaround time to get it back in the air with more fare-paying passengers on board.</p> <p dir="ltr">Despite the revolutionary change exciting many, others are sceptical at the airline’s claims. </p> <p dir="ltr">Ben Schlappig of US aviation blog<a href="https://onemileatatime.com/news/indigo-deplaning-a320-three-doors/"> One Mile At A Time </a>questioned if all the claimed time savings would occur in real-life settings. </p> <p dir="ltr">“The process of actually getting out the door is one bottleneck, but I’d think that getting down the aisle is another thing that takes time, and that’s still an issue, even with a second door in the front.”</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em><span id="docs-internal-guid-9300df50-7fff-1f10-f327-9cda09fc8532"></span></p>

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Health breach at Sydney airport has passengers from Melbourne disembark without health screening

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text "> <p>Passengers flying home from Melbourne to Sydney on a Jetstar flight on Tuesday night were able to get off the plane without undergoing a health screen for symptoms of coronavirus.</p> <p>The major health breach was confirmed by Jetstar to NCA NewsWire and allows some people to enter the major city without being tested. </p> <p>A Jetstar spokesman said crew assisted health officials who were reportedly not present at the time the plane landed by locating passengers in the terminal.</p> <p>The airline also provided officials with the aircraft manifest to assist them in contacting passengers who were not found in the terminal.</p> <p>“Together with Sydney Airport, we have refined our disembarkation procedures to prevent this situation from occurring again,” the spokesman said.</p> <p>Passengers had been screened in Melbourne but it is government policy that they are tested again before disembarking in Sydney.</p> <p>This process usually begins after health officials arrive at the gate and signal to plane crew that they are ready to receive disembarking passengers, but under the new protocol, planes will not be able to pull up to the gate before NSW Health Officials are ready.</p> <p>The screening test includes a temperature check and questions about whether passengers have experienced coronavirus symptoms and if they have travelled to any hot spots in the past two weeks.</p> <p>The NSW Government introduced new laws on Tuesday night that prohibits anyone from Greater Melbourne from travelling into the state. </p> <p>NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said the government was “in the process” of chasing up the passengers.</p> <p>“If anyone is found to have travelled in breach of any orders we’ll refer them to police and take the appropriate action, depending on whether anyone is symptomatic, to ensure the community is protected,” she said.</p> </div> </div> </div>

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