Authorities in the southeastern coastal province have issued an emergency alert for people who sailed with the World Dream. Photo / Arno Redenius, Wikimedia Commons
Authorities in the southeastern coastal province have issued an emergency alert for people who sailed with the World Dream. Photo / Arno Redenius, Wikimedia Commons
A desperate search has begun for passengers on the World Dream cruise ship after at least four passengers were confirmed with coronavirus, while the Diamond Princess has confirmed 10 cases aboard its quarantined vessel.
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.
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.
It comes after 10 people tested positive for the virus on a separate cruise ship at the Japanese port of Yokohama.
Ten people have tested positive as health screening began yesterday for the more than 3700 passengers and crew aboard the Diamond Princess. They are among 31 results from 273 people tested so far, Japan's Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said today.
The ship is quarantined in Yokohama after a man who sailed on the vessel in January and disembarked at Hong Kong was found to be infected.
In an updated statement, the Princess Cruise Line said the ten passengers who were confirmed coronavirus carriers included "two Australian guests, three Japanese guests, three guests from Hong Kong, and one guest from the US in addition to one Filipino crew member."
Infected passengers and crew are being transported shore on Japanese Coast Guard ships for care under quarantine in Yokohama.
The cruise line confirmed that this quarantine would last "at least 14 days" as required by the Japanese Ministry of Health.
UK passenger David Abel said the atmosphere on the ship was "like a ghost town".
Writing to a personal social media page, Abel described the circumstances under quarantine as: "really weird I went for a walk around a part of the ship that is normally really busy – the musicians were still out playing, but where there normally would have been crowds of people, I saw maybe 20. Even the shopping areas where it would be packed are empty."
Photographs and video posted on Twitter showed masked health workers clad in blue plastic gowns walking down empty corridors on the Diamond Princess as well as views of deserted lounges and a barren deck.
There are reportedly 10 confirmed coronavirus cases on the Diamond Princess. Photo / AP
Meanwhile the provincial government of Guangdong confirmed they had identified "a few coronavirus patients" who had been on the World Dream ship, though it did not provide exact numbers.
Some 4000 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.
The Diamond Princess anchors off the Yokohama Port, where it is quarantined. Photo / AP
The Jiangmen government said they had contacted 21 people who had been in proximity to the man and 18 of them had been quarantined.
The exact number of passengers who may be infected with the virus is not yet known.
Dream Cruises said in a statement it had been "in contact with local government bodies and tourism boards to extend every assistance in regards to this situation including providing passenger and travel agent lists and will continue to cooperate with the authorities as information becomes available."
Last week the operator said the ship would cancel trips between Hong Kong and Guangzhou between February 9 and March 22, and temporarily shift its home port to Keelung in Taiwan.
