99 virus cases on cruise in Japan; fears for ship docked in Cambodia
SHIPS OF WOES Passengers of cruise liner Westerdam may have scattered across the world without full health check-ups
BEIJING/TOKYO: Japanese officials s a i d 9 9 more p e o p l e were infected by covid-19 aboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, including 14 Americans who were found to be carrying the virus while being evacuated by air from the ship.
This raises the total infections in the vessel to 454, making it the largest cluster of cases outside mainland China.
Meanwhile, a scramble intensified to trace passengers from Westerdam, another US cruise liner allowed to disembark in Cambodia despite at least one traveller later being diagnosed with the deadly coronavirus.
There are fears that scores of cruise goers may have been scattered across the world without full health checks, as Cambodia on Monday treated a few dozen of the passengers to bus tours around the capital Phnom Penh.
Passenger Christina Kerby said she “was surprised” to be allowed on a tour of the Cambodian capital before being given the complete all-clear from the virus. 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, which originated in China.
A Westerdam passenger, an 83-year-old American woman, was stopped on arrival in Malaysia and later diagnosed with the coronavirus. On Monday, Malaysia said over 130 other passengers who also took the flight with the sick American woman left for the US, Europe and Australia and Hong Kong.
Thailand, a flight hub already used by scores of the Westerdam passengers, on Monday mulled a ban on transit by cruise goers, as the region played catch up to the risks posed by the boat.
“Passengers on ship are at risk and travel by air plane will cause risk to other passengers,” health minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Monday.
The Japanese health ministry said it now has tested 1,723 people on the Diamond Princess. The ship had about 3,700 passengers and crew.
Two chartered planes flew 340 Americans who were aboard the vessel out of Japan late Sunday. About 380 Americans had been on the ship. The state department announced later that 14 of the evacuees were confirmed to have the virus in tests given before they boarded the planes.
They were taken to the US because they did not have symptoms and were being isolated from other passengers on the planes, it said.
More than 100 new deaths on Sunday pushed the covid-19 death toll in China to 1,770, and more than 70,500 are infected.
The worst-hit Hubei province reported 1,933 new cases.
The province of around 60 million people is locking down all residential communities in urban and rural areas, closing all non-essential public places as well as banning public gatherings and private vehicles to fight the virus.