Thailand blocks cruise ship from one-day visit

Thailand has denied entry to passengers and crew of a cruise ship that arrived at the popular Andaman Sea resort island of Phuket. Police said they would not allow the more than 2,000 people on board the Costa Fortuna to disembark, because some of the passengers are from Italy.

Thailand has officially designated Italy as a dangerous communicable disease area.

South Korea, China, Macao, Hong Kong and Iran are also on the list.

Thai authorities are allowed to prohibit entry of anyone traveling from a designated dangerous disease area, or require them to undergo physical examination or be quarantined.

Police said even though there were no known cases of COVID-19 aboad the ship, it would be impractical to check or quarantine the large number of passengers for a scheduled one-day stop.

Thailand last month barred the Westerdam cruise ship after it had already been turned away at several other Asian and Pacific locations.

The passengers were finally allowed off at the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville, and returned home by air.