Cruise ship finally allowed to dock in Mauritius
CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A U.S.owned luxury cruise ship with more than 3,000 passengers and crew was allowed to dock Monday in the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius after being quarantined offshore for a day over fears of a possible cholera outbreak onboard, authorities said.
The Mauritius government cleared the Norwegian Dawn, which is owned and run by the Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line company, to dock at the harbour in the capital, Port Louis, after health officials found no traces of cholera in tests conducted on the ship’s water.
Mauritius authorities blocked the ship from docking on Sunday because 15 people onboard were ill with vomiting and diarrhea. The Mauritius Ports Authority said it took the decision “in order to avoid any health risks,” and sent officials onboard to collect samples to test.
The Mauritius government said the sick passengers who had been isolated after falling ill in fact had mild cases of the viral infection gastroenteritis.
Norwegian Cruise Line said there were “a small number of guests experiencing mild symptoms of a stomach-related illness” and there were “no confirmed cases nor any evidence of cholera.”
The Mauritius government “required testing in an overabundance of caution,” it added.
Several countries in mainland southern African have experienced serious outbreaks of cholera over the past year, possibly leading to the concern from authorities in Mauritius, an island nation of about 1.2 million people off the east coast of Africa that’s a popular tourist destination.
Cruise ships were problematic during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many of them reporting outbreaks of that disease and having to be quarantined at ports.
The United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs says there’s a cholera epidemic in southern Africa, with a total of around 188,000 cases and 3,000 deaths in eight countries since January 2023.