Ambulances and medical crews arrived at Port Kembla at midday to begin disembarking the remaining Ruby Princess workers who are sick with coronavirus.
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The Mercury understands the 21 crew members, who are still testing positive to the virus, will be assessed and then transported in the ambulances and buses to medical facilities.
Unions have been pushing hard for the sick crew to come off the ship, saying it should not be forced to leave Australian waters until they have been given the proper medical care.
As the ambulances arrived, the national coordinator for the international transport workers federation in Australia Dean Summers reiterated the importance of getting the crew off the ship.
"Here we are the day before the ship had been ordered to go to sea," he said.
"We've had ambulances and buses go through and hopefully that indicates some of the sick people are coming off the ship.
"We know from the health department that there are 21 active and contagious cases of COVID-19 on board the ship, and we cannot let this ship sail with any cases."
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Earlier in the day, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller confirmed that the ship was on track to leave on Thursday.
He said at Filipino nationals would come off the ship on Wednesday, but did not address the issue of the sick crew.
"The Commissioner of Border Force has written to Carnival and directed that the Ruby Princess leaves Australian waters from this Thursday, so from a NSW Police perspective, we are still working to that date," he said.
"Yesterday 57 crew were escorted off the ship and a number have already flown home, over the next three days the balance of that 57 will be repatriated to their home countries.
"There are a number of other potential crew members who may be repatriated, we are waiting for information from either Carnival or other consulates in terms of absolutely fixed travel arrangements for those individuals."
Also earlier on Wednesday morning, South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris, who has been working with unions to lead the call for all crew to be tested and repatriated if they wish to leave the boat, said the latest figures from health officials at the port showed there were 21 people on board who remained sick with the virus.
"We are now down to 21 COVID positive people on board," Mr Rorris said.
"That means that over time, many who were previously positive have now gone into that negative category and tested negative.
"We're looking at a total negative, healthy range for those that have never tested positive to either the virus or antibodies at being just over 70 percent of the entire ship.
"If you do your math, you would lead you to the view that we've got 300-plus crew members who, at some point, had tested virus positive to COVID-19."
"We are therefore pleased to have said, form the very start, that everyone needs to be tested as a way to fast forward their repatriation and put a plan in place."
Mr Rorris said the 21 virus positive people should be removed from the ship immediately to be assessed and treated, and said the Thursday deadline set down by Border Force was "presumptuous" and "unfortunate" until they had been dealt with appropriately.
"That ship can't go anywhere with 21 positive cases on board, they need to be taken off immediately," he said.
"That would then make the task a lot easier of allowing this ship to sail.
"We prefer to think about this as a medical case, an issue that needs to be resolved by a medical plan rather than a transport timetable. It should be a given that this ship can not sail with sick crew on board."
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