Cruise ship shunned over coronavirus fears arrives in Cambodia

[geovalin]

Cruise ship shunned over coronavirus fears arrives in Cambodia

Prak Chan Thul

 

MS Westerdam, a cruise ship that has been turned away by five countries over fears that someone aboard may have the coronavirus, is seen arriving in Sihanoukville port in Cambodia February 13, 2020. REUTERS/Stringer

 

SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (Reuters) - A cruise ship which had spent two weeks at sea after being turned away by five countries over fears that someone aboard may have the coronavirus arrived in Cambodia on Thursday to the relief of passengers and the praise of global health officials.

 

The MS Westerdam, which has 1,455 passengers and 802 crew on board, arrived at an anchoring point in the Cambodian port town of Sihanoukville early on Thursday morning, according to data published by the Marine Traffic website.

 

“We’ve had so many near moments we thought we were going home only to be turned away,” Angela Jones, an American tourist on board the ship, told Reuters.

 

Jones and her fellow passengers had spent almost two weeks at sea as the ship failed to find a country that would allow it to dock.

 

“This morning, just seeing land was such a breathtaking moment,” said Jones. “I thought: Is this real?”

 

Passengers on board the ship have been subjected to regular health checks throughout the troubled journey, according to Holland America, the ship operator and a unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp.

 

Although no-one on board has fallen ill on board, the ship had been turned away by Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand over fears that someone on the cruise could have the new flu-like virus that has killed more than 1,300 people, almost all of them in China.

 

To kill time on board and break up the monotony of endless ocean scrolling past cabin windows, the ship’s crew have organized dozens of activities to keep people occupied, tourists on board the vessel told Reuters earlier this week.

 

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Cambodia for allowing the Westerdam to dock.

 

“This is an example of international solidarity we have been consistently calling for,” Tedros said ahead of the ship’s arrival. “Outbreaks can bring out the best and the worst in people.”

 

Stoking fears of authorities in countries on the ship’s route has been the ongoing quarantine in Japan of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, also managed by a unit of Carnival Corp. A total of 175 out of the 3,700 people on board the Diamond Princess have tested positive for the coronavirus.

 

On Tuesday, the Westerdam had attempted to dock in Bangkok but was denied permission by Thai authorities to do so. On Wednesday, a Thai Navy warship escorted the Westerdam out of the Gulf of Thailand, where it headed on a new course to Cambodia, according to Marine Traffic.

 

Westerdam captain Vincent Smit said in a letter to passengers the ship would be at anchor outside Sihanoukville first to allow authorities to conduct health checks on board.

 

Most passengers will be able to disembark and begin their journey home via chartered flights from Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, from Feb. 14, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.

 

“We are very pleased to have our final plan,” Smit said in the letter.

 

The U.S. ambassador to Cambodia said he had dispatched a team to assist U.S. citizens with disembarking and transferring to onward destinations, and was coordinating with embassies of other nationalities.

 

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul in Sinhoukville and James Pearson in Hanoi; Editing by Anantharaman Muralikumar and Lincoln Feast.)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-13

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[ThreeEyedRaven]

28 minutes ago, geovalin said:

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Cambodia for allowing the Westerdam to dock.

Kudos to Cambodia for providing somewhere to berth. While I understand peoples concerns over the virus, there have been no reports of any sickness on board, so the continuous refusals by some countries is starting to reflect poorly on them. Thailand was in a far better position to deal with this and to my mind, lost a great opportunity to be shown as caring and compassionate. On top of other actions by its health minister, it has instead come out looking pretty shoddy.

[smedly]

20 minutes ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Thailand was in a far better position to deal with this and to my mind, lost a great opportunity to be shown as caring and compassionate. On top of other actions by its health minister, it has instead come out looking pretty shoddy.

4 cruise ships arriving in Phuket over the next couple of weeks - go figure

[DrTuner]

Arrived at Snooky. Do not anyone into the boat from there, it's a hotbed of Chinese.

Edited February 13, 2020 by DrTuner

[Borzandy]

Normal, Cambodia is now a Chinese province.

[yellowboat]

4 hours ago, geovalin said:

“This morning, just seeing land was such a breathtaking moment,” said Jones. “I thought: Is this real?”

Thought the same thing on my first trip to Snooky. 

 

4 hours ago, geovalin said:

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Cambodia for allowing the Westerdam to dock.

 

“This is an example of international solidarity we have been consistently calling for,” Tedros said ahead of the ship’s arrival. “Outbreaks can bring out the best and the worst in people.”

Cambodia teaches the world a lesson.  Hun Sen will bring this up again and again.

 

4 hours ago, geovalin said:

The U.S. ambassador to Cambodia said he had dispatched a team to assist U.S. citizens with disembarking and transferring to onward destinations, and was coordinating with embassies of other nationalities.

Where was that assistance in Guam?   How embarrassing.

[Gervais Bilodeau]

6 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Arrived at Snooky. Do not anyone into the boat from there, it's a hotbed of Chinese.

Nothing to be seen there...chineses have destroyed the place.

[Gervais Bilodeau]

3 minutes ago, Gervais Bilodeau said:

Nothing to be seen there...chineses have destroyed the place.

The ratio passengers/crew is more than 50% crew.

At this ratio it is a very luxury cruise ship or the ship is not fully booked.

[mrfill]

6 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Arrived at Snooky. Do not anyone into the boat from there, it's a hotbed of Chinese.

Is that why the US Ambassador dispatched a team to assist U.S. citizens with disembarking and transferring to onward destinations? To assist the Chinese???

[Stargeezr]

Shame on Thailand for still letting in Chinese, but refusing this ship, while still planning to 

let other ships to come to Thailand.  How is this for some sort of Thai thinking, very confusing to me, especially when there was even some Thai people on board the ship. How will the leadership explain this situation away? I don't get it.

Geezer

[Letseng]

12 hours ago, ThreeEyedRaven said:

Kudos to Cambodia for providing somewhere to berth. While I understand peoples concerns over the virus, there have been no reports of any sickness on board, so the continuous refusals by some countries is starting to reflect poorly on them. Thailand was in a far better position to deal with this and to my mind, lost a great opportunity to be shown as caring and compassionate. On top of other actions by its health minister, it has instead come out looking pretty shoddy.

If other countries don't want to take the risk why should Thailand do it. It was careless to go ahead with the cruise incl. taking on more pax in Hongkong. Greed by HAL. And careless by the passengers. 

I'm presently in Europe. In my home town we had 4 ppl going into quarantine after a cruise which started and ended in Hongkong. Luckily it turned out to be just flu. But cost paid by taxpayer. 

[amykat]

I bet the Thais acted like Somali pirates with outrageous ransom demands ....to be paid if they wanted to land, and the ship kept looking, maybe not enough money in the pirate safe??