Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeanette Young has apparently summarily rejected a proposal to set up travel bubble, which would allow Queensland cruise ship passengers to cruise in Queensland and visit Queensland’s most famous holiday destinations as proposed by eGlobal Travel Media only last week and CLICK HERE TO READ the article.
Dr Young though has apparently said “no”, it appears rather abruptly, with Daniel Gschwind CEO of Queensland’s Tourism Industry Council telling eGlobal Travel Media that he was very surprised at Dr Young’s very blatant and immediate response.
He added that he believed that rather than give an immediate and what appeared to be an unconsidered rejection, Dr Young should consider every proposal of this nature on its merits, adding that the proposal should have been assessed properly and professionally, with a full and well informed and constructive investigation undertaken into its risks and how they could be mitigated, rather than an outright rejection.
Mr Gschwind also said that of course, everyone was shocked by the scenarios in relation to cruise ships and in particular Ruby Princess and COVID-19, with the investigations and enquiries having allocated blame firmly to NSW Health.
He said he believed that now was the time to reassess, particularly in light of these investigations and enquires and also the very significant protocols that cruise companies have put in place with MSC in Italy operating cruises, great examples of how risks can be mitigated and eradicated.
Dr Young told The Brisbane Times, “Cruise ships remained a risk because a person may travel without showing symptoms of COVID-19”.
The industry and CLIA proposal to the contrary clearly mitigates those risks by very stringent testing pre cruise and onboard and also stringent social distancing and cruises would be limited to Queenslanders, but it appears that Dr Young will not even consider those professionally created risk mitigation or eradication protocols.
Dr Young has said though, “Cruise ships magnify infections and it would not be safe to begin even Queensland-wide cruising until ’later down the track’”, adding, “We know that if someone goes onto that cruise ship from wherever they might have the infection and it would spread”, “We saw that as one of the early consequences of this virus, “When there were very, very few cases in the world, we saw that cruise ships just magnified those case numbers.” “So no, they’re something that would be quite late in our process before we think they’re a good idea.”
There is no indication or confirmation that she has even considered the protocols proposed by Cruise Lines International Association Australia [CLIA] and the industry.
CLIA told The Brisbane Times last week they had begun talks with the Port of Brisbane Pty to examine the possibility of running Queensland-only cruises for Queenslanders-only from the new Brisbane Cruise International Terminal at Luggage Point, but Dr Young has said she would not consider approval “until quite late in the Queensland recovery process”, adding that travelling on cruise ships was not safe during the pandemic and cruise ships lead to transmission very, very readily”, “We know that from the past, we always saw outbreaks of norovirus, we’ve seen outbreaks of flu, so it is not surprising that you would see outbreaks of COVID, so really, they are not safe.”
Port of Brisbane Pty CEO Roy Cummins said cruise lines agreed health safety must come first, but industry leaders had been hoping for a green light from the state government, in a bid to save the embattled tourism industry, with Cummins adding, “We know there is a loyal customer base who are very keen to resume cruising when it’s safe to do so.”
Check out eGlobal Travel Media’s recent coverage on this issue and in the meantime, the industry urges Dr Young to reconsider her position and decision in a what might be a more informed manner and also base her decision on the facts not uninformed speculation.
A report by John Alwyn-Jones
