Journo’s island cruise results in virus nightmare

For more than a week, every little cough, sneeze or sinusitis attack sent a Johannesburg journalist on an emotional roller-coaster ride after rumours started swirling that a passenger on a cruise she had gone on had tested positive for Covid-19.

Last Friday night her worst nightmare came true – she received confirmation from the MSC Orchestra, which returned from the Mozambican Islands on 16 March.

“That is when I started thinking of all the places I have been, people I have come into contact with because I have been out working after the trip. I got really anxious because I have a sinus problem… maybe I was infected,” The Citizen journalist Bernadette Wicks, 31, said yesterday.

The ship left Durban on 13 March, a day after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster and she went aboard with five relatives, including her 53-year-old mother and 28-year-old sister.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has said two South Africans who recently travelled on separate trips to the Mozambican Islands with MSC Cruises had tested positive for Covid-19, with the first case detected in a passenger who travelled on 28 February and returned on 2 March.

The second was detected on the ship that Wicks and her family took, with the two cases sending the health department on the mammoth task to trace and screen more than 3,000 people.

Wicks said her mother, a nurse, had not been well when they departed from Durban, which she said became a major concern. Her test came back negative on Monday.

“I went for my tests on Monday and got my results, which were negative, the following day. It was a massive relief because all of us tested negative,” she said.

None have yet been contacted by the health department.

The MSC Orchestra is said to have been carrying 3,337 people, including 929 crew members.

According to Wicks, almost all passengers disembarked on the Portuguese Island, which, apart from traders, was deserted.

Passengers on the ship were from all over the country, with KwaZulu-Natal health department spokeswoman Noluthando Nkosi confirming all passengers had been advised of a passenger testing positive.

Mkhize said the two confirmed cases were from KZN and the Free State.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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