China scrambles to locate passengers on cruise after at least four diagnosed with coronavirus

Guangdong province has issued an emergency alert for people who sailed on a China-Vietnam cruise after four passengers were confirmed with coronavirus

Authorities are urging the 4,000 people who were on board the World Dream vessel to report to local disease control centres

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Authorities in Guangdong province have issued an alert for passengers that traveled between China and Vietnam on the World Dream cruise liner. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:30pm, 4 Feb 2020Updated: 6:13pm, 14 Feb 2020

The disease control authority of Guangdong is scrambling to track down thousands of passengers who were on board a cruise between China and Vietnam after at least four people were confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus.

Authorities in the southeastern coastal province have issued an emergency alert for people who sailed with the World Dream, asking them to report to local municipal disease control and prevention centres.

The provincial government confirmed they had identified “a few coronavirus patients” who had been on the ship, though it did not provide exact numbers.

Some 4,000 passengers sailed with the boat, which travelled from Nansha port in Guangzhou to Vietnam on January 19, before returning on January 24.

On Monday, it was revealed at least three confirmed cases and two suspected cases of coronavirus had been identified on the 19-deck luxury cruise ship, which is owned by Genting Hong Kong and operated as one of its Dream Cruise fleet.

A total of 108 passengers on board were from Hubei, which is on virtual lockdown after the new coronavirus was identified as having originated from a seafood market in the provincial capital of Wuhan. The disease, which has been declared a global health emergency, has killed at least 425 people in mainland China and infected more than 20,000.

While one case was confirmed by local government officials in Guangdong province, a doctor working at a major hospital in Guangzhou said the clinic had dealt with an additional two confirmed cases and two suspected cases.

Jiangmen city government in southern Guangdong reported on Tuesday that a part-time member of the ship’s “ground staff” was also infected. The man, who was primarily involved in security checks, worked on the boat until 9.30pm on the night it departed and came down with a fever about midnight in January 23, authorities said. He was diagnosed with the 2019 coronavirus on February 1.