Premier Mark McGowan says a cruise ship is anchored off Perth requesting urgent medical assistance.

WA Health Department officials have boarded the Artania after 25 passengers reported respiratory illnesses.

There are 800 passengers and 500 crew onboard. Mr McGowan said a passenger no longer onboard later tested positive for COVID-19.

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Another ship, the MSC Magnifica, departed Fremantle last night but overnight was told it would be stopped from docking at Dubai.

It turned around and headed back to Fremantle, but was ordered by the WA Government to weigh anchor off the coast.

Camera Icon Tracking of the MSC Magnifica appears to show it changing route and returning to WA’s shores.

Mr McGowan said no passengers or crew on the Magnifica would be allowed to set foot in WA, unless they were in a life-threatening emergency and the WA Government had called the Commonwealth for “urgent assistance” to deal with the emergency on board the Artania.

A third cruise ship, the Vasco da Gama, is due to arrive in Fremantle on Friday, carrying 798 Australians and 109 New Zealanders.

Cruise & Maritime Voyages, which operates the Vasco da Gama, said it had recorded “no health concerns” among the passengers or crew, who have not left the ship since March 14.

The Premier said the disembarking of Ruby Princess passengers infected with COVID-19 in Sydney was a “complete and utter disaster”.

MSC Cruises yesterday said there were no sick passengers onboard the Magnifica and no cases of suspected coronavirus.

“I will not allow what happened in Sydney to happen in WA,” Mr McGowan said.

Health Minister Roger Cook said there were 30 new cases of coronavirus in WA, bringing the total to 205.

Of the 30, five are passengers from cruise ships. One-in-four cases in WA were directly linked to cruise ships that docked in the eastern states.

WA Police commissioner Chris Dawson said he was speaking to the military about how it could help and that authorities were planning for a “worst case scenario”.

He said the Magnifica had been “doing loops” off Perth this morning and the ship’s master had been told it would not be permitted to dock.

“The Magnifica is fully refuelled, fully provisioned. There is no reason it needs to stay here. There are no Australians onboard and no sickness onboard,” Mr Dawson said.

He said Australian passengers on the Vasco da Gama would be taken to Rottnest Island for 14 days quarantine. There were no reports of illness on that ship.

He said the Artania arrived at 2am and at 8am Health Department officials boarded the ship to test passengers showing symptoms. Test results were expected on Wednesday evening.

“We do not want this vessel making a berthing at Fremantle until we know the facts, until we know the condition of the passengers onboard,” Mr Dawson said.

The sudden change of course of MSC Magnifica earlier sparked confusion, with tracking of the ship which left Fremantle Port yesterday appearing to show the cruise ship changing route and returning to WA.

An online cruise mapper currently shows the vessel located just off Yanchep, having done a full circle after pushing off Fremantle for refueling at 8.15pm last night.

This morning a Fremantle Ports spokesperson told The West Australian the “Harbour Master was not aware of of the ship coming back in”.

“That’s not the case as far as we are aware,” they said.

Initial reports that the cruise ship was carrying almost 300 people suffering from respiratory illness were yesterday swiftly rebuffed by the ship operator MSC Cruises, who said the stop was merely to refuel.

Following the revelations, WA Police Force and the Australian Border Force were on high alert yesterday, patrolling the passenger terminal area to ensure none of the 1700 travellers onboard got off the ship.

At 8.15pm, the ship left Fremantle Passenger Terminal with just one Australian Border Force unit left on site.

The ship was scheduled initially to travel to Dubai after Fremantle but a port departure list yesterday afternoon stated that it was instead heading to Port Louis in Mauritius.

MSC has been contacted for comment.