This is despite WA Premier Mark McGowan and Police Commissioner Chris Dawson telling reporters on Monday morning that 250 passengers had reported respiratory illnesses suspected to be COVID-19. Mr McGowan said he had contacted Prime Minister Scott Morrison Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton about the ship and said he would not allow passengers or crew to wander the streets. The spokeswoman from MSC Cruises said the Magnifica planned to make a technical call at Fremantle and no passengers would disembark, nor did any require medical attention. The ship had done the same at other technical calls along her itinerary, including in Sydney where passengers and crew remained on board during the technical-only call there. There were 1700 passengers on board the Magnifica, with no Australian citizens.

It is currently about 20 nautical miles off the south west coast of the state. As of Monday, there were only a handful of patients requiring hospitalisation in Western Australia. But a large and sudden influx of new cases requiring medical assistance, hospitalisation and intensive care could overwhelm the state's health system. Under international law and custom, a port must grant refuge to a ship in distress. AMA WA president Andrew Miller said frontline doctors were already concerned the state's health system was not ready for the onslaught of COVID-19 in coming weeks.

"The arrival of 250 potential cases today puts us in a more severe situation than any other state," he said. "We cannot and we will not refuse care to anyone who needs it. "We will be asking questions, like everybody else, as to how this happened with so little notice and we will, as front line doctors, be assuming that this development will lead to the measures that we have been calling for, for weeks now, to be implemented immediately." The ship would be sailing to Dubai from Fremantle. Mr McGowan said the government was developing options to deal with people seriously ill on the ship and options to quarantine passengers, but it was unclear if those would be necessary.

"Clearly if people are critically ill and may die we need to see what kind of medical assistance can be rendered," Mr McGowan said. He said all passengers were from overseas, including people from Germany, France and Italy. "This morning, I contacted the Prime Minister and have spoken to the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to explain that my priority is to protect West Australians," Mr McGowan said. "I will not allow what happened in Sydney to happen here. "We will not allow passengers or crews to wander the streets.

Loading "The issue is really anyone who is critically ill and we're going to work with medical authorities to work out what we can do to assist those people. "We need to make sure we provide whatever medical assistance we can to people who are critically ill and we'll work with the Commonwealth as to where the ship goes and what we do with it." He said the state might seek defence force assistance with the crisis, or treat critical patients in hospitals, or provide medical assistance on board. "Whatever option it is, it needs to protect West Australians," Mr McGowan said.