HK cruisers make up 90pc of World Dream passengers checked for coronavirus

Port health official Leung Yiu Hong says 90 percent of passengers on board the World Dream cruise ship now at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal are from Hong Kong and no one is from mainland China.

He says more than 30 crew members with symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat will undergo tests.

Leung said everyone will undergo temperature screening and must fill in a health declaration form.

They will not be allowed to leave until the tests are done. Leung said the length of the quarantine or the possibility of other steps will depend on the health tests.

The Hong Kong residents are among more than 1,800  held up on the cruise ship. Health officials  boarded it for health checks after mainland authorities said three passengers on an earlier sailing had been infected with the Wuhan coronavirus.

Citing a cable TV bulletin, AFP reported earlier that the World Dream, was denied entry in Kaohsiung in Taiwan on Tuesday.

World Dream is operated by Dream Cruises of Genting Cruise Lines. The fleet includes Genting Dream, and Explorer Dream.

World Dream made its debut in Keelung, Taiwan in July last year.

The cruise company said it had been notified by mainland authorities that three passengers who had been on a previous voyage had since been diagnosed as being infected with the new coronavirus.
The infected passengers were on the ship between 19 and 24 January, the company said.
The cruise ship then set sail for the mainland and Vietnam, with new passengers, on February 2. It returned to Hong Kong in the morning today, after being refused permission by Taiwanese authorities to dock in Kaohsiung.
Officials from the Centre for Health Protection boarded the ship at Kai Tak today to carry out checks on the 1,800 people on board.
They were expected to provide more information about the situation in the afternoon.

The cruise company said it had isolated staff members it believes came into contact with the three infected passengers and had sealed the rooms the passengers had stayed in.-AP/RTHK/The Standard