Antarctic Cruise to Be Evacuated Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Aurora Expeditions’ Greg Mortimer cruise ship will start to be evacuated this week after more than half of the 217 people on board tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).

The ship originally departed on a voyage to Antarctica and South Georgia on March 15 but is currently stranded off of the coast of Uruguay due to restrictions aimed at reducing the spread of the virus.

In an update published Tuesday, the Australian cruise company confirmed that 128 passengers, staff and crew have tested positive for COVID-19, with six being transported off of the ship to medical facilities in Montevideo.

The cruise line has secured evacuation plans for Australian passengers—who will likely fly home Thursday or Friday—but stated that European and American passengers who have tested positive will have to wait longer.

“We have been working on charters and flights for all onboard with the aim of disembarking our passengers as soon as possible. While our preferred plan had been to disembark all passengers simultaneously, the nature of the situation and the difficultly in securing flights has meant it is likely that the Australian and New Zealand passengers will leave the vessel before our European (U.K. included) and North American passengers,” Aurora Expeditions said in a statement.

“We have been advised that European and American passengers that have tested positive to COVID-19, unfortunately, must wait until they have a negative test result after which we will be able to organize their departure via Sao Paulo and then to their final destination. We will be retesting all passengers every 2 or 3 days from the last test based on the availability of the Uruguayan lab to be able to process the test results,” the cruise company added.

Aurora said that the hard cost of getting passengers home via the chartered Airbus A340 equates to about $9,300 per person.

“We have asked the Australian government for support with this cost as we know that it is not viable for many people and we are working on a solution. We have shared this information with our passengers to be 100 percent transparent and are doing everything we can to ensure this full amount is not passed on to each individual,” the company said.

Aurora said it will provide further details as they become available.