Cruise ship returning to Singapore after being denied entry in Malaysia, Thailand

The operators of the cruise ship Costa Fortuna announced that it was heading to Singapore to end its journey as planned. According to reports, the Costa Fortuna will end its journey on March 10 after being turned away from ports in Malaysia and Thailand over coronavirus fears.

Growing fear of foreigners

The Italian Cruise Liner has reported that it has no virus cases on board. As per reports, the passengers on board include Italians. Italy has reported the largest number of virus cases outside China with 7,375 reported cases and 366 deaths. The operators of Costa Fortuna have announced that they will be cancelling the cruise trip that was due to depart on March 10 from Singapore.

According to reports, the passengers will undergo health checks while disembarking from the ship.

On March 6, US Vice President Mike Pence announced that 21 people on board the cruise ship which is currently stranded off the coast of San Francisco have tested positive for the coronavirus. According to reports, the 21 people consist of 19 crew members and two passengers. US President Donald Trump said he wants them to stay quarantined onboard.

Read: US Cruise Ship In Limbo As Anti-virus Controls Spread

The cruise ship, Grand Princess was denied permission to dock after it was discovered that two of the cruise ship's previous passengers had tested positive and one among them has even died. According to reported, in a press conference, Mike Pence said that 46 people onboard the Grand Princess have been tested.

Read: Virus-hit US Cruise Ship To Dock As New York Declares Health Emergency

Pence further added that the 3,400 passengers aboard the Grand Princess and its crew would be taken to a non-commercial port and everyone will then be tested there. As per sources, US President Donald Trump told a reporter after touring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta said that he would rather let the people stay on the ship.

He also added that while that was his personal opinion, he would defer the handling of the decision to Vice President Mike Pence who was recently given the responsibility of coordinating the United States's response to the rapidly spreading coronavirus.
In an earlier incident, passengers aboard the Diamond Princess were quarantined on a cruise ship off the coast of Japan after passengers and crew tested positive for the coronavirus. The decision to quarantine the passengers and crew on board the ship by the Japanese authorities led to one of the world's biggest outbreaks of coronavirus outside mainland China at that time.

Read: Virus-hit US Cruise Ship To Dock As New York Declares Health Emergency

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