Around 3,600 people are currently being held in quarantine on a cruise ship moored in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Bay after it emerged that the ship had carried three people who were subsequently diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus.
The World Dream cruise ship docked at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal this morning, and Department of Health personnel boarded the vessel to carry out medical checks on the 1,800 passengers and 1,800 crew.
World Dream, a cruise ship which had been denied entry to the Taiwan port of Kaohsiung, now dock at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, with over 1800 passengers and crew of undergoing health checks and are forbidden to leave the ship without permission. #WuhanCoronavirus #HongKong #Taiwan pic.twitter.com/Qr8s2to095
— Jessie Pang (@JessiePang0125) February 5, 2020
Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Leung Yiu-hong — the chief port officer for the Centre for Health Protection — said they received confirmation from mainland authorities that three mainland passengers who were aboard the cruiseliner between Jan. 19 and 24 were later confirmed to have the Wuhan coronavirus.
The ship sailed from Nansha port, in Guangzhou, for Vietnam with more than 4,000 passengers on board at the time. Around 200 of the passengers on that trip were Hongkongers. The World Dream then set off on another cruise with new passengers on Sunday, Feb. 2.
It was originally going to Kaohsiung, Taiwan for its next port of call, but authorities there refused to let the ship dock, and it ended up at Kai Tak this morning.
Leung said that about 90 percent of the ship’s passengers are from Hong Kong, while the rest are foreigners, and no mainlanders were on board.
He added that three crew members reported having a fever and were sent to public hospitals for isolation, and 27 other crew members reported having symptoms such as coughing and sore throat.
Three ambulances parked at the Kai Tak cruise terminal, later taking three patients away from the #WorldDream. pic.twitter.com/5CLtGM22hF
— Daniel Suen (@suen_daniel) February 5, 2020
Those on board are filling out health declaration forms and aren’t allowed off the ship.
Leung said that he couldn’t tell how long the screening process would take, saying: “We’d like to see the result of our quarantine measures and the epidemiological investigation to see whether we need more stringent measures. So for the time being, we cannot conclude the likely time for finishing the quarantine measures.”
Hong Kong has seen 21 confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus so far, one of them fatal, and this announced this afternoon that would be imposing a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals from the mainland, regardless of residency status.
The news of the World Dream quarantine comes after 10 people — including three SAR residents — tested positive for the novel coronavirus on another cruise ship in Japan.
According to RTHK, they were on board the Diamond Princess, which arrived in Yokohama Bay on Monday. The 10 people who tested positive were taken to hospital, and the remaining passengers and crew have to stay on board under a 14-day quarantine.
