AS PASSENGERS FROM A SHUNNED CRUISE LINER FAN OUT TOWARD HOME AFTER WEEKS IN LIMBO AT SEA, HEALTH AUTHORITIES AROUND THE WORLD ARE MOBILIZING TO PREVENT A FURTHER SPREAD OF THE CORONAVIRUS.
Westerdam had been declared free of infection
HONG KONG/SINGAPORE • As passengers from the shunned cruise liner Westerdam fan out toward home following two weeks in limbo at sea, health authorities around the world are mobilizing to prevent a further spread of the coronavirus after an American guest from the ship was found to be infected.
Cruise operator Holland America Line, which gave assurances that the pathogen that’s killed more than 1,700 had not struck anyone aboard the Westerdam, now says it’s working with authorities to deal with the possible fallout from returning guests who may have been exposed to the virus. Passengers hailed from 41 countries and territories, with the largest number from the U.S.
From the Netherlands to Thailand, health authorities are implementing procedures, from quarantines in government facilities to check-ins with public health workers, to deal with the travellers and the risk they pose if they have been infected.
“There may be other people from the ship who have acquired the infection, didn’t show symptoms, yet are now returning home,” said Ben Cowling, a professor of epidemiology at Hong Kong University. “Now that there’s a confirmed case, putting people who return home in quarantine is a natural and reasonable thing to do.”
The plight of the Westerdam, which garnered sympathy on social media after being turned away by five countries and territories, turned into a public health fiasco hours after Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen welcomed the passengers at the dock and his health ministry cleared them to disembark.
The ship’s saga marks a fresh blow to Asia’s nascent cruise industry, coinciding with an alarming increase in infections on Carnival Corp.‘s Diamond Princess, quarantined in Yokahama, Japan.
Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore said they would no longer allow Westerdam passengers to transit through their airports. The clearing of the bulk of the 1,455 passengers for travel after a self-reported health questionnaire and temperature check has raised tensions among some of Cambodia’s neighbours in Southeast Asia. Twenty passengers had also tested negative for the coronavirus in Cambodia before the ship was cleared.
“The deputy prime minister who leads the national emergency response council — she has already announced that we are not allowing any flights from Cambodia that have any passengers from Westerdam,” said Ong Kian Ming, deputy minister at Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry. “So I think that is sending a signal to the authorities in Cambodia.”
The U.S. evacuated 300 Americans from the Diamond Princess, including 14 who tested positive for the virus but showed no symptoms. Japan said infections from the ship jumped to 454 after 99 new cases were identified.
Thailand, the last country to turn the Westerdam away, said it will subject returnees to a 14-day quarantine and also give them the option of a self-quarantine.
“The ship is considered high-risk because people are in close contact with one another for an extended period of time,” said Sukhum Kanchanapimai, the Health Ministry’s permanent secretary. “Just look at what happened with Diamond Princess.”
The Westerdam’s lone infection so far is an 83-yearold American woman who was cleared to travel from Cambodia. After she and more than 100 other Westerdam passengers arrived in Malaysia on Feb. 14 to transit, she came down with a fever, cough and had difficulty breathing. Two tests confirmed the coronavirus diagnosis. Her 85-year-old husband tested negative as did six other passengers. She is in stable condition at a hospital in Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile, in Canada so far, only eight cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed, but public health authorities agree they must be prepared for that to change.
Canada is already preparing for another wave of evacuees with possible exposure to the virus, though health authorities say their risk of infection is low.