The first cruise ship, Cruise Infinity , arriving at MPT with a new set of seafarer berthed at the MPT Cruise berth on Thursday morning.
According to Jerome Clement , Nodal officer and Senior Deputy Traffic manager, as per SOP guidelines laid by state administration , all the seafarers on the ship will be subject to Covid testing and only after confirmation of being Covid negative ,the seafarers will be able to Disembark .
" The ship has come from Mumbai and got around 1450 stranded Goan seafarers and all the seafarers will be tested for Covid . We have got full support of the DHS team and all the seafarers will be tested will be within a day or two . The entire team of DHS is present now and only after test results the seafarers can move out of the ship . If they test negative , they may go for home quarantine and if they test positive ,they will have to be shifted to Covid Hospital . The coaches will be arranged and arrive only after the test results are out " said Clement
Meanwhile a family member of the seafarer Leona from Vasco had arrived at the jetty with her kids after she received a phone that the ship had docked
" We are extremely happy that finally my husband is back in Goa. He had called me to say that the ship has arrived at MPT and since we live in Vasco, I arrived with my kids who wanted to see the ship bringing their father home . The kids are very happy and excited with the news and I as of now ,don't know how long it will take for my husband to finally arrive home but as of now the news that the ship has docked has made our day " said Leona