Around 150 Filipino crew are already on their way to Sydney Airport to start their repatriation process, before catching a flight back to Manila this evening.
Another 21 crew have been placed in mandatory quarantine in hotels in Sydney, where they will remain for the next 14 days.
In total, 300 crew members were expected to disembark, leaving around 500 on board to steer the vessel into international waters.
The cruise ship is scheduled to depart Port Kembla in Wollongong at 4:00 pm today.
It marks exactly five weeks since the ship docked in Sydney and let 2700 passengers off to fly home to locations across Australia and overseas.
The vessel has since been linked to almost 700 cases of coronavirus in Australia and 21 deaths.
Meanwhile, NSW recorded just five new cases of the virus overnight.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said over 5600 people were tested in the past 24 hours and the latest numbers were a positive result.
“It’s probably one of the best results we’ve had given the number of people tested and the low number of people tested and the low number of cases,” the premier said.
“We know that these restrictions we’ve had in place are working and I deeply want to thank everybody for again their persistence, your vigilance, your patience and I know how frustrating it’s been, but we’re also deeply grateful that everybody has done the right thing.”
