Scramble to track cruise passengers in Cambodia

Authorities race to find hundreds who disembarked from ship after woman tests positive for coronavirus

SHANGHAI/SIHANOUKVILLE: Authorities scrambled yesterday to track hundreds of cruise ship passengers scattered across the world after a woman who had been on board tested positive for coronavirus, highlighting the risks of a worsening global infection.

Holland America Line said it was working with governments and health experts to track passengers who disembarked from its Westerdam cruise ship in Cambodia after an American woman tested positive in Malaysia.

The cruise line, which is owned by cruise giant Carnival Corp, said none of the other 1,454 passengers and 802 crew had reported any symptoms.

“Guests who have already returned home will be contacted by their local health department and be provided further information,” a statement from the company said.

The case raises questions about how companies and countries should handle monitoring and quarantine for people who may have been exposed to the new virus, since the woman had passed the usually presumed incubation period of 14 days.

Passengers had been cleared to travel by

Cambodian authorities after health checks when the cruise ship docked last Thursday. It had spent two weeks at sea after being turned away by Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand.

But on Saturday, an American woman who arrived in Kuala Lumpur on a chartered flight had tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The woman’s husband tested negative. Some 137 passengers from the Westerdam, who also took the flight to Malaysia with the American, have now left on commercial flights for other destinations.

Dozens more of the Westerdam passengers had flown through Thailand and onward to other countries, Thai officials said.

At least 236 passengers and 747 crew members remained aboard the vessel off the Cambodian port city of Sihanoukville, Holland America said. Others were in hotels in Phnom Penh.

The Cambodian Ministry of Health said on Sunday it was “actively searching for any suspected cases” and urged the public “not to worry too much”.

Other passengers who have already left the ship are in Phnom Penh waiting for flights home. – Agencies