In a letter from cruise operator Aurora Expeditions to passengers on Wednesday, managing director Robert Halfpenny confirmed the rescued man had tested positive for COVID-19 and was in a critical condition in hospital. He is the first passenger to test positive for the virus. An Australian with coronavirus being rescued from the Greg Mortimer cruise ship stranded off Uruguay. Credit:Rowena Hamilton Passengers said they understood the man had pneumonia and was being cared for at the private British Hospital in Montevideo. Three new cases in the past 24 hours have brought the total number of people on board with fevers to nine – including the ship's doctor, who is now unable to perform his duties. A back-up volunteer medic was being arranged while Aurora said in its letter to passengers that it had formally escalated its request to the Uruguay Ministry of Health "to allow us to bring the Greg Mortimer dockside and to urgently map a path to get you on the path to disembarkation and back to your home countries".

Australian passengers Wayne and Rowena Hamilton on board the Greg Mortimer, stranded off Uruguay. Margaret Zacharin said her husband John Clifford, 71, a Melbourne orthopaedic surgeon who suffers from asthma, was among the "elderly and high-risk passengers" being asked to step in. "He's not the right person to go and run around a ship tending to COVID-positive passengers. This is not actually very sensible, but that's the option." Ms Zacharin, who is at home in Melbourne and awaiting news from her husband that she expects about 9pm AEDT, when he wakes up, said the situation "is now indeed grim". The Greg Mortimer cruise ship is stranded off the coast of Uruguay.

She said she was aware Aurora was working with DFAT and Uruguayan authorities to bring the passengers home, "but it's just not happening at a rate that is suitable". Ms Zacharin said she was certain that the people who are ill "are all going to have COVID and a percentage of them are going to die for lack of proper attention". A spokeswoman for Chimu Adventures, which chartered two planes to fly Australians and New Zealanders home from the Ocean Atlantic cruise in Uruguay this week, said the company was sharing "all logistical information and assistance possible" to help the Aurora. The 136 Australia passengers on the second flight are due to arrive in Sydney early on Friday morning, while a previous flight brought 291 home on March 31.

The worsening situation on board the Greg Mortimer came amid a ray of hope for 132 Australians on board two Holland America Line (HAL) cruises heading towards Florida with dozens of suspected COVID-19 cases and four bodies on board. Margaret Zacharin's husband John Clifford in Antarctica. US President Donald Trump has indicated the US will allow the MS Zaandam and MS Rotterdam to dock, although what will happen to the Australians on arrival remains unclear. Mr Trump told a press briefing on Thursday morning that he was in discussions with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis about the fate of the ships, due to arrive at Port Everglades on Friday morning AEDT. Mr DeSantis said earlier this week that he did not want foreigners or Americans from other states "dumped" in Florida and "taking up valuable resources" in the state that is already struggling with coronavirus cases.

Mr Trump would not confirm whether all on board would be let off the ships but said "at a minimum we're sending medical teams on board" and Canadian and British citizens would be repatriated. Loading He did not mention any plan for the 132 Australians. "It's a tough situation. You can understand, you have people that are sick on those ships and states don't want to take them. They have enough problems right now, they don't want to take them. But we have to from a humane standpoint." In a statement, HAL said "guests fit for travel per the CDC [Centres for Disease Control] would transfer straight from the ship to flights for onward travel home, the majority on charter flights".