Virus on board: Scramble to find passengers who left US cruise liner after one later tests positive
PHNOMPENH/TOKYO: A scramble intensified on Monday to trace around 1,200 passengers from US cruise liner Westerdam, allowed to disembark in Cambodia, after one traveller was later diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus — the American woman only made it as far as the Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia where she was stopped at the thermal scanner; she later tested positive.
Meanwhile, 14 passengers, all American, who were evacuated from another cruise ship, Diamond Princess, this one in Japan, and initially believed to be free of the virus, tested positive shortly before their chartered flight was to take off for the US. They were flown out — after a section of the aircraft was made into a contained space for them — along with the other evacuees. Outside China, the Diamond Princess has had the largest number of cases of the COVID-19 illness caused by the virus that emerged in China last year.
Both incidents raised fresh concerns about the quality of screening ahead of evacuation or release of people who have had the chance of being exposed to the highly contagious virus, which originated in China and has killed around 1800 people, almost all in China, and infected tens of thousands across 26 countries .
On Monday, about 70 Wuhan evacuees were discharged from the Indo-tibetan Border Police’s quarantine facility on the outskirts of Delhi, and by Tuesday evening all 406 people under quarantine at the ITBP facility are expected to leave for their respective homes. None of them were infected, the health ministry said.
However, the Westerdam issue has raised fears that potentially tens of infected passengers may now be scattered across the world without full health checks — as Cambodia on Monday afternoon treated a few dozen of the passengers to bus tours around the capital Phnom Penh.
Passenger Christina Kerby, whose droll tweets as the Westerdam was bounced across ports drew widespread attention, admitted she was “surprised” to be allowed on a tour of the Cambodian capital before being given the complete all-clear from the virus. “I have young kids back home (in the US) and wouldn’t want to risk infecting them or anyone around me if I am carrying the virus,” she told AFP.
The Westerdam was at sea for two weeks during which it was barred from Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand over fears it could be carrying the virus. On Thursday Cambodia, a staunch ally of Beijing, allowed the ship to dock at Sihanoukville. It was met by the kingdom’s bombastic premier, Hun Sen, who hugged disembarking passengers as he swiftly latched on to the Westerdam’s PR potential for a nation more often in the spotlight for human rights abuses. His stance won applause from US President Donald Trump. But three days later one Westerdam passenger, an 83-year-old American, was stopped on arrival in Malaysia and later diagnosed with the coronavirus.