[14][15][16] On 19 March 2020, the ship arrived back in Sydney, New South Wales two days early from the New Zealand cruise, docking at 3 a.m., as some COVID-19 swabs needed to be tested as an urgent matter.

The state health minister, Brad Hazzard announced on 20 March 2020 that 13 of the people on the ship had been tested for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, and 3 of them were positive.

The International Transport Workers' Federation had called on the Australian government to allow the crew members to be disembarked so that they could be flown to their countries of residence.

[30] About 900 passengers from countries other than Australia left Sydney after the ships arrival there; few specifics are known about infections or deaths in this group.

[32] According to an inquiry by Bret Walker SC for the New South Wales government, the eventual death toll was at least 28, including eight from the United States.

[26] A report by The Guardian's Matilda Boseley commented: "Since the ship's 2,700 passengers were allowed to freely disembark in Sydney on 19 March, federal and state authorities have been pinballing blame.

[42] As of the evening of 8 April, 30 investigators had been assigned to Strike Force Bast which was looking into the Ruby Princess case: as to "the communications, actions, and other circumstances that led to the docking and disembarking of the vessel" without a quarantine.

[36] On 15 April, the NSW State Government announced a Special Commission of inquiry to investigate events surrounding the Ruby Princess.

His report was released on 29 April 2021 and found that inspection protocols were not followed as unwell passengers should have been screened individually by following a checklist but this was not done.

[50] In April 2022, Ruby Princess and 52 other cruise ships were under investigation by the CDC for excessive COVID-19 outbreaks on board their vessels since the start of the year.

In January, 12 passengers on a Ruby Princess cruise to Mexico tested positive for the virus, while more than 70 people were found to have COVID-19 on the same ship after it returned from a trip to the Panama Canal in March.

[51] On 6 July 2023, Ruby Princess made "unexpected contact" with the Port of San Francisco's Pier 27, described as a "hard landing", while docking at the completion of a ten-day cruise to Alaska.

[53] Crews patched the hole the following day and the cruise line announced that it was "confident" the ship would soon be cleared to depart.