This major 7NEWS investigation examines the critical errors and cover-ups in the deepening Ruby Princess coronavirus crisis, to date responsible for seven deaths and 10 percent of all COVID-19 cases in Australia.

Featuring interviews with key players at the centre of the developing scandal and passengers aboard the fateful cruise, 7NEWS reveals damning new information in documents obtained from the highest echelons of government detailing the truth of what the boarding passengers of the Ruby Princess unwittingly walked into, and those who knew about it.

It was a cruise that should have been cancelled. When 2,700 holidaymakers boarded the Ruby Princess on March 8 for a round-tour of New Zealand, what they didn’t know was they were walking on to a floating petri dish that, hours before they’d stepped aboard, sick passengers from the previous tour had disembarked.

By the time the ship returned to Sydney in the early hours on March 19, the COVID-19 virus had spread rapidly through the ship. Yet all passengers were granted permission to come ashore and use any means of travel to return to their homes both in Australia and in many cases, overseas – no warnings of the dangers they faced, the peril on board, and the danger they now posed to the wider community.

7NEWS investigative reporter Denham Hitchcock presents this explosive investigation into how the Ruby Princess became a breeding ground for the largest cluster of COVID-19 in the country, now spread to every state and territory – and other parts of the world.

This special originally aired April 5, 2020.

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