Covid-19: Cruise ship turned away by M’sia, Thailand to make scheduled call at S’pore with necessary precautions
The Costa Fortuna’s home port is in Singapore.
SINGAPORE — The cruise ship Costa Fortuna will make its scheduled call at Singapore on Tuesday (March 10), after it was turned away from ports in Malaysia and Thailand over coronavirus fears.
In a statement on Monday, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Singapore Tourism Board (STB) said the ship has declared that none of its passengers currently onboard have a fever or other symptoms of respiratory illness. Precautionary measures — such as swab tests and temperature screening — will also be in place for disembarking passengers, the agencies said.
According to AFP, the Costa Fortuna is carrying about 2,000 people, including 64 Italians.
Italy has been hit hard by the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, with more than 7,300 confirmed cases as of Sunday. It has reported 366 deaths from the virus, the highest number of deaths outside China.
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ver the past two weeks, Singapore has handled more than 10 scheduled calls by cruise ships and disembarked more than 5,000 passengers MPA and STB said in a second statement issued on Monday night.
The Costa Fortuna’s home port is in Singapore. Like all other cruise ships departing from Singapore’s cruise terminals, Costa Fortuna was disinfected prior to its departure from Singapore on March 3.
All of its passengers had completed pre-embarkation checks for travel history and temperature screening before boarding. This is its 16th call since December 2019.
Costa Fortuna has not picked up any new passengers since it left Singapore on March 3.
The ship’s onboard doctor will check the passengers and crew to ensure that they are healthy before disembarking in Singapore, the statement added.
Those who have a fever or other symptoms of respiratory illness will be taken directly to the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. Those without symptoms will be taken directly to the airport for their onward flights.
Passengers entering Singapore will be required to undergo temperature screening as a precautionary measure.
Those who have a fever or other symptoms of respiratory illness but who do not meet the Ministry of Health’s clinical definition of Covid-19 may be required to undergo a swab test, while those who are identified for swab testing but refuse to do so will not be allowed entry into Singapore.
The Republic’s cruise terminals remain open to scheduled cruise calls out of Singapore, added MPA and STB, while unscheduled calls have been disallowed since Feb 24.
The ship had first been turned away from the Thai resort island of Phuket on Friday, reported AFP, despite having no suspected virus cases on board.
On Saturday, it tried to dock in Penang, Malaysia, but was also refused entry. Local media reported on Sunday that Malaysia has banned all cruise ships from docking at its ports indefinitely.
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