Quarter of Ruby Princess crew 'in isolation' after man taken to hospital

More than 200 Ruby Princess crew members are sick and in self-isolation after one crew member was removed from the cruise ship.

Tonight, 9News revealed about 250 of the crew were experiencing sickness and were currently isolated on board.

A 66-year-old man was evacuated from the ship in Sydney Harbour this afternoon after NSW Health and an independent medical team boarded the vessel.

The medics were checking on the wellbeing of around 1,000 crew still on board the ship, which has become the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia.

Seven deaths and 600 cases have been linked to the ship in Australia.

The latest victim was an 85-year-old man from Toowomba, Queensland, who died overnight after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

"I can confirm that he was from the Ruby Princess (cruise ship)," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said today.

In NSW 340 cases – 337 passengers and three crew – originated from the Ruby Princess.

Yesterday Janet Lieben, a grandmother from NSW, died at Orange Base Hospital from the virus.

Her husband Jerry is also seriously ill with coronavirus.

There are still eight cruise ships off the coast of NSW that could be visited in a military-style operation involving medics flying to the vessels to test about 8000 passengers and crew aboard.

But there is concern if people are found carrying COVID-19 and brought to Sydney, the city's hospital system would be overwhelmed.

There have been 4,976 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia.

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