American from cruise ship docked in Cambodia tests positive in Malaysia for coronavirus

[geovalin]

American woman from cruise ship tests positive again for coronavirus in Malaysia

By Ebrahim Harris and Matthew Tostevin

 

The cruise ship MS Westerdam at dock in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia February 16, 2020. REUTERS/Matthew Tostevin

 

KUALA LUMPUR/ SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (Reuters) - An American passenger from a cruise ship that docked in Cambodia has tested positive for the new coronavirus a second time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia said on Sunday, after the cruise firm and Cambodian authorities sought further tests.

 

The 83-year-old woman was the first passenger from the MS Westerdam, operated by Carnival Corp unit Holland America Inc, to test positive for the virus. She tested positive in the Malaysian capital where she arrived on Friday from the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville.

 

But the cruise ship operator had sought more tests, saying the first result was preliminary. Cambodian authorities also called on Malaysia to review its test results.

 

Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Waz Azizah Wan Ismail said on Sunday the American woman tested positive again on Saturday night.

"The COVID-19 retest was carried out on the husband and wife pair late last night and the results were the same. That is positive for the wife and negative for her husband," Wan Azizah told reporters.

 

A total of 145 passengers from the cruise ship had arrived in Malaysia but only the American couple showed symptoms, Malaysian authorities have said.

 

Wan Azizah said 137 passengers have left Kuala Lumpur, while another six are awaiting flights to their destinations.

 

Malaysia will not allow any more Westerdam passengers to enter the country "taking into account that all those passengers were in close contact with the earlier positive case", she said.

 

Malaysia will also turn away any cruise ship that departed or transited at any port in China, Wan Azizah said.

 

The Westerdam passengers were tested regularly on board and Cambodia also tested 20 once it docked. None was found to have the new coronavirus that has killed more than 1,600 people, the vast majority in China.

 

It arrived on Thursday in Cambodia carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew. It had spent two weeks at sea after being turned away by Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand.

 

Holland America said 236 passengers and 747 crew remained aboard the vessel.

 

Cambodia's government said its own tests had been done in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Mam Bun Heng, Cambodian Minister of Health, was not immediately available for comment on Sunday.

 

There are widespread fears that cruise ships around Asia may be spreading the virus. The biggest cluster outside China has been on the Diamond Princess, quarantined off Japan's Yokohama. Out of about 3,700 passengers and crew on board, 355 people have tested positive.

 

Vietnam turned back two ships on Friday.

 

(Reporting by Ebrahim Harris and A. Ananthalakshmi in Kuala Lumpur, Matthew Tostevin and Clare Baldwin in Sihanoukville, Prak Chan Thul in Phnom Penh; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-16

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[Susco]

4 minutes ago, geovalin said:

An 83-year-old American passenger from a cruise ship that docked in Cambodia after being shunned by other countries has tested positive for the new coronavirus after being tested in Malaysia, health authorities said on Saturday.

 

But I got nothing but negative Emoji's when I defended Thailand as they decided to refuse the ship docking.

 

6 minutes ago, geovalin said:

The ship docked in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville on Thursday carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew. It had spent two weeks at sea after being turned away by Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand.

 

The passengers were tested regularly on board and Cambodia also tested 20 once it docked.

 

Oh yeah Thailand bad, Cambodia good.

 

They tested TWENTY passengers out of 1455 on board before allowing them to enter the country.

 

Hope you enjoy you plate of crow Thai bashers

[4MyEgo]

The Thai officials that stopped that ship docking here are going to have a field day with this no doubt, but will they stop the Chinese coming ????

 

I can't believe the accepting country of this ship has allowed almost everyone to disembark and fly back to their countries, spreading the love of course, how irresponsible !!!

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by 4MyEgo

[Tayaout]

[BestB]

This virus is either weird or they still

do not understand it . Woman tested positive but her husband negative . They shared same room, slept on same bed and hubby did not contract it  and yet it’s spreading and claimed to be airborne . 

[4MyEgo]

2 minutes ago, BestB said:

This virus is either weird or they still

do not understand it . Woman tested positive but her husband negative . They shared same room, slept on same bed and hubby did not contract it  and yet it’s spreading and claimed to be airborne . 

Could be that he hasn't reached the 14 day period, e.g. she might have got it 10 days a go, earlier than the up to 14 days it is known to take, and he still has a few days, regardless, totally irresponsible to allow people to disembark until the 14 days, no doubt it has already spread further now. 

[Tayaout]

14 minutes ago, BestB said:

This virus is either weird or they still

do not understand it . Woman tested positive but her husband negative . They shared same room, slept on same bed and hubby did not contract it  and yet it’s spreading and claimed to be airborne . 

There is no reliable fast test yet. It's also believed that in some case the viral load is too low during incubation. 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/13/health/us-coronavirus-test-kits/index.html

 

I read that in China sometimes they need 4-5 tests before getting a positive result. 

Edited February 16, 2020 by Tayaout

[dabhand]

I bet Hun Sen, being 67 y.o., is feeling just a bit twitchy just now. Maybe should have gone easy on the hugging and kissing.

[gargamon]

So Cambodia has the capability to test all those passengers? I highly doubt it. This could be the route the virus needed to get out of China.

[BestB]

57 minutes ago, gargamon said:

So Cambodia has the capability to test all those passengers? I highly doubt it. This could be the route the virus needed to get out of China.

OP clearly states they tested 20, assuming 20 who were ill or unwell one way or another 

[Haecksler]

3 hours ago, BestB said:

I have no idea , all I know is that no one knows anything . Watched video from US , I think it was a WHO conference , where they basically said  origin is unknown , 100% not from the seafood market . It is airborne, do not need to be in contact to contract it. They also said SARS was nothing in comparison to corona and China is lying , real numbers last week were at almost 60000 dead and by the end of the month most likely will reach 300000-500000

 

another scary thing that was mentioned , was that it could of been man made 

would you please post the link for that video? Search doesn't helped.

[Beggar]

12 hours ago, BestB said:

This virus is either weird or they still

do not understand it . Woman tested positive but her husband negative . They shared same room, slept on same bed and hubby did not contract it  and yet it’s spreading and claimed to be airborne . 

Perhaps they did not share the same partner. Life has many surprises. 

[BestB]

40 minutes ago, Haecksler said:

would you please post the link for that video? Search doesn't helped.

Can not , was on Facebook for 2 days and have not seen it appear again 

[BestB]

30 minutes ago, Beggar said:

Perhaps they did not share the same partner. Life has many surprises. 

At 80 years old on a cruise ship.  Highly unlikely ????????

[Beggar]

2 minutes ago, BestB said:

At 80 years old on a cruise ship.  Highly unlikely ????????

I have friends here with 80++ here in Pattaya. They are old but still very fit and enjoy their life to the fullest or better what the red light district here in Pattaya has to offer. 

[CharlieH]

Reported post removed.

[spiekerjozef]

and everybody else is in the wind....

[spiekerjozef]

8 minutes ago, car720 said:

Precisely.  This is the most interesting thing I have read since the outbreak.  How, if it is so contagious, does she have it and not him?

he's immune

[yellowboat]

22 hours ago, Susco said:

 

Oh yeah Thailand bad, Cambodia good.

Actually world bad Cambodia good.   Guam, a US possession, turned the boat away too.  Thailand was just one of several sissies.  Hun Sen's gamble may have paid off.   Orange said thanks as did the UN.  He is a colorful character.  He is bad, but not all bad.   

[hotchilli]

23 hours ago, geovalin said:

A total of 145 passengers from the cruise ship had arrived in Malaysia but only the American couple showed symptoms,

So far....

[KKr]

10 hours ago, Beggar said:

Perhaps they did not share the same partner. Life has many surprises. 

(Love Boat)^² or something like that.

Interesting thought, that provokes the Question:
how would people in a confined space behave if they knew they all had to go within say six months.

A big Swinging Party maybe, or Doom and Gloom and wait making each other more miserable ?

[KKr]

1 hour ago, yellowboat said:

He is a colorful character.  He is bad, but not all bad.   

and surely can calculate propaganda value.

[MikeN]

11 hours ago, BestB said:

Can not , was on Facebook for 2 days and have not seen it appear again 

Perhaps it was taken down by Facebook because it was fake news??

[BestB]

34 minutes ago, MikeN said:

Perhaps it was taken down by Facebook because it was fake news??

Yes, a recording of conference is fake news, all the people in the clip were also all fake

[Pedrogaz]

Reading the comments here I see there is a lot of confusion about coronavirus testing. First there are not billions of test kits hanging around in warehouses waiting for someone to pick them up. Testing is very slow indeed...notice that less than a 1000 on the Yokohama ship have been tested. Third the PCR methodology that is used has a given sensitivity....ie if you have 2 virus particles in the sample it may fail to detect....but if you have 20, it may detect them....ie there are lots of false negatives.

Fourth, the samples are not uniform and like with biopsies for cancer you need multiple samples from patients....plus samples from sputum are very difficult to analyze. 

Given all this, countries, especially China, have done well with limited resources and hardware. They obviously can't screen everyone at the drop of a hat, so so must prioritize ie give priority to people with symptoms, elderly, immune deficient etc.

Lastly, the standards are changing as people come to grips with this new plague. Testing via PCR will get much more sensitive with time.....if you look at Hep C, when the PCR test first came out in 1988 you needed some 1 million visions per sample to get a positive result, 50 years later it was down to about 50 virions. 

 

[MikeN]

2 hours ago, BestB said:

Yes, a recording of conference is fake news, all the people in the clip were also all fake

Well, originally you were not sure if it was a WHO conference or what, were n't you ? And you do know that videos can be edited, don't you ? and you do know that Facebook have said they will take down anything that is likely to cause panic and has not been scientifically verified, don't you ? If Facebook have taken it down they must have their doubts about the video........

but never mind, you can believe everything on the internet if you want, as nobody ever, ever, trolls, do they ?

Edited February 17, 2020 by MikeN

[placnx]

2 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

Reading the comments here I see there is a lot of confusion about coronavirus testing. First there are not billions of test kits hanging around in warehouses waiting for someone to pick them up. Testing is very slow indeed...notice that less than a 1000 on the Yokohama ship have been tested. Third the PCR methodology that is used has a given sensitivity....ie if you have 2 virus particles in the sample it may fail to detect....but if you have 20, it may detect them....ie there are lots of false negatives.

Fourth, the samples are not uniform and like with biopsies for cancer you need multiple samples from patients....plus samples from sputum are very difficult to analyze. 

Given all this, countries, especially China, have done well with limited resources and hardware. They obviously can't screen everyone at the drop of a hat, so so must prioritize ie give priority to people with symptoms, elderly, immune deficient etc.

Lastly, the standards are changing as people come to grips with this new plague. Testing via PCR will get much more sensitive with time.....if you look at Hep C, when the PCR test first came out in 1988 you needed some 1 million visions per sample to get a positive result, 50 years later it was down to about 50 virions. 

 

BBC has a useful piece about the pitfalls of testing

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51491763

The poor now dead doctor in Wuhan had, was it six, negative tests before a positive one. By then he was too sick to be saved.

 

Could there be a 15-minute test using newer technology, something that could be used for screening before boarding aircraft? It could help slow the spread and allow more time to increase production of antivirals, perhaps have a candidate vaccine to administer to health workers on a stopgap basis. While this is not like Ebola, the huge number of cases coming our way means that even a small percentage becoming mortalities could be economically & politically destructive.

[Iron Tongue]

New data suggests incubation period may actually be 24 days instead of just 14.

 

This mess is far from over.

 

 

  

[Enoon]

On 2/16/2020 at 9:51 AM, Susco said:

 

But I got nothing but negative Emoji's when I defended Thailand as they decided to refuse the ship docking.

 

 

Oh yeah Thailand bad, Cambodia good.

 

They tested TWENTY passengers out of 1455 on board before allowing them to enter the country.

 

Hope you enjoy you plate of crow Thai bashers

 

At 14.05 (local time today) NewGen Airways VGO 850 landed, on time, at Don Mueang.

 

It was followed, at 14.10, by NewGen 856.

 

Both flew direct from China.

 

856 from Nanning.

 

850 from Changsha.......Hunan Province.....the Southern neighbour province of Hubei (whose capital is virus central.....Wuhan).

 

500+ passengers?

 

No asymptomatic passengers, from those flights, will have been tested.

 

All could be carriers.

 

Another flight from Changsha due in at 18.10.

 

That's been happening, and will continue to happen, every day.

 

You deserved all the razzing you got, you and the Thai government continue to deserve it.

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by Enoon

[purcho]

9 hours ago, MikeN said:

Well, originally you were not sure if it was a WHO conference or what, were n't you ? And you do know that videos can be edited, don't you ? and you do know that Facebook have said they will take down anything that is likely to cause panic and has not been scientifically verified, don't you ? If Facebook have taken it down they must have their doubts about the video........

but never mind, you can believe everything on the internet if you want, as nobody ever, ever, trolls, do they ?

Good reply . The OP has a habit of shall we say ....expanding on dubious info ...just to let you know who you are dealing with ...Scaremongering or Trolling are other words that come to mind