MSC cruise ship docks in Durban, screening of passengers to be completed on Sunday

Despite the MSC Orchestra arriving at the port of Durban on Friday, many of it's 2,408 passengers will have to remain on board until Sunday.

This as government undertakes the painstaking task of capturing the personal information of each passenger as well as screening them by recording their temperatures before they are given the all-clear to disembark.

In a statement, the MSC said it had detailed and submitted this disembarkation plan to the relevant authorities.

The plan permits only 100 passengers to disembark from the vessel at a time, to comply with regulations preventing more than 100 people from gathering in a seaport precinct.

“Once they have cleared Port Health and Immigration, passengers will leave the terminal and the next 100 passengers will be disembarked until the ship has been completely disembarked,” the statement read.

Yolande Schlimmer, 38, was fortunate to be in one of the first groups to leave the ship on Friday.

She spoke to TimesLIVE at the old Durban drive-in, to which passengers were being transported by bus before being allowed to head home.

Schlimmer said despite travelling to the Portuguese Islands, they were not allowed to get off the ship.

“When we arrived there they announced that we could not get off due to the rough sea. I'm not sure whether if it was because of the coronavirus, to ensure that we don't come into contact with anyone on the island.”

She said in preparation for disembarkation, they were divided into groups of 100, with each group given a specific colour code.

However, another passenger, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said despite the strenuous data-capturing and immigration process, she felt a bit concerned.

“When you get off the ship they would take your temperature, but I don't know if that's sufficient because we've seen reports of people who have passed these tests at airports and still end up testing positive.”

SA Maritime Safety Authority acting CEO Sonbantu Tilayi told TimesLIVE that he was not aware of anyone who had been kept behind due to having high temperatures.

Tilayi addressed the media at the Transnet National Port Authority offices at the Durban port, shortly after midday on Friday.

“The disembarkation process started a few hours ago and we still have a long way to go. We are not aware of anyone that exhibited any signs that would have given us any cause for concern. We still have a long way to go until the last passenger disembarks.”

He said they had been receiving medical reports, on an eight-hourly basis, while the vessel was at sea.

He said the process of capturing the personal information from each passenger was crucial to assist tracing teams at a later stage.

The MSC Orchestra departed Durban on Monday on a five-day cruise, as part of its current season.

In its statement, the popular cruise liner said the vessel did so after receiving confirmation from all authorised personnel that the port was open and operating as normal.

“After MSC Orchestra had already left Durban, on March 18 the SA government published new regulations to ban all passenger cruise ships coming from international waters at a number of ports.”

MSC said that of the 3,337 people on board the ship, 2,408 were passengers and 929 crew.

“The numbers include 2,366 SA passengers and 132 SA crew members. Approximately 99% of the passengers on board MSC Orchestra are either SA citizens or foreigners with permanent residence in SA and who live in the country. There are no foreign nationals on board who have travelled from a high-risk area in the last 14 days,” the statement read.