MONTEVIDEO, April 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — More than 100 Australians and New Zealanders left Uruguay aboard a specially chartered flight after two weeks stranded aboard a virus-infected cruise ship, Montevideo’s Carrasco airport said in the early hours of Saturday.
Of 217 people aboard the Greg Mortimer liner, 128 had tested positive for new coronavirus and had been blocked from docking.
An agreement between the Uruguayan and Australian governments was made to create a “sanitary corridor” to take the mostly elderly tourists from Montevideo’s port to its international airport where they boarded a flight for Melbourne.
The medical plane arrived in Uruguay on Thursday and departed at dawn on Saturday for Melbourne, the foreign ministry said.
Once arriving in Melbourne they will all be required to stay in isolation for two weeks.
The Airbus A340 plane contracted to fly them home “is configured with medical facilities aboard… to look after the health and security of everyone,” said Aurore in an earlier statement.
The liner, run by Australian company Aurore Expeditions, has been anchored off the port of Montevideo in the Rio de la Plata since March 27.
However, there are no plans yet to repatriate a small number of European and American passengers.
They must “wait until they test negative” before organising their repatriation via Sao Paulo, Brazil, Aurore said.
The cruise ship was originally due to tour Antarctica, South Georgia and Elephant Island but the expedition was called off on March 21 after South American countries and Australia started closing their borders and imposing strict lockdown regulations.
With ports all along the Atlantic coast of South America closed, the Greg Mortimer was forced to sail to Montevideo, more than 2,600 kilometres from South Georgia. — NNN-AGENCIES
