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Only 112 passengers will be evacuated. The crew and COVID-19 positives will remain on board.
Uruguay will evacuate this Friday part of the passengers on board the Australian cruise ship Greg Mortimer, most of them infected by COVID-19.
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Authorities will deploy a humanitarian corridor to transport 112 passengers from the ship to the airport in Montevideo, according to the Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The humanitarian plane is expected to arrive the airport at 5 a.m. However, the cruise ship passengers, who are Australian and New Zealand citizens, will be repatriated on Saturday.
In order not to expose immigration officials to contagion, the visa procedures were processed digitally, the Foreign Ministry said.
#Dato: para llevar a 112 pasajeros del crucero Greg Mortimer varado en Uruguay a Australia; un A340-300 de HiFly operará el #CorredorHumanitario hacia Melbourne (MEL/YMML) desde el #AeroDeCarrasco.
— PabloLapadjian ✈ (@lapadjian_pablo) April 9, 2020
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"To take 112 passengers of the Greg Mortimer cruise ship, which is stranded in Uruguay, to Australia, a HiFly A340-300 will operate the humanitarian corridor to Melbourne from Carrasco Airport. Plane Arrival in Montevideo: 5h00. Plane Departure to Australia: 1h40"
The Australian ship has been anchored off the coast of the South American country since 27 March, with 216 people on board. Among them, some 128 are COVID-19 positive cases.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry did not inform what will happen to the people who will not be evacuated this weekend.
According to local media, the evacuation of some COVID-19 patients was not authorized. They will remain on board until their quarantine is completed.
Authorities have so far only allowed six COVID-19 positives to leave the cruise ship. They were taken to hospitals, as their lives were in danger.
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