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The Westerdam was finally able to dock in Sihanoukville, Cambodia<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n
A cruise ship that was stranded at sea, because ports were worried about passengers bringing coronavirus, has been allowed to dock in Cambodia.<\/strong><\/p>\n The MS Westerdam had been turned away by five places in Asia in recent days.<\/p>\n Another cruise ship in quarantine in Japan has more than 200 infections – but the Westerdam, with more than 2,000 crew and passengers, has none.<\/p>\n Only on Tuesday, the cruise liner attempted to dock in Bangkok but was denied permission.<\/p>\n A Thai Navy ship escorted her out of the Gulf of Thailand, from where she set course for Cambodia.<\/p>\n On Thursday morning, the ship finally arrived at an anchoring point in the port city of Sihanoukville.<\/p>\n “This morning, just seeing land was such a breathtaking moment,” passenger Angela Jones from the US told Reuters. “I thought: is this real?”<\/p>\n According to the English-language Khmer Times, the ship will allow passengers to disembark on Friday, after 20 people on board who had fallen ill tested negative for coronavirus.<\/p>\n The Westerdam, run by the US-based Holland America Line, departed Hong Kong on 1 February with 1,455 passengers and 802 crew on board.<\/p>\n The cruise had been scheduled to run for two weeks – and with those 14 days running out, there were worries about fuel and food supplies.<\/p>\n As well as Thailand, it was also turned away by Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, and Japan.<\/p>\n “We’ve had so many near moments – we thought we were going home only to be turned away,” Ms Jones said.<\/p>\n The ship’s captain Vincent Smit said the ship would anchor outside Sihanoukville to allow authorities to conduct health checks on board.<\/p>\n Passengers will then be able to leave the ship and return to their home countries from the country’s capital Phnom Penh.<\/p>\n The US embassy in Cambodia said it had sent a team to assist its citizens with planning their journey.<\/p>\n Cambodia’s decision to welcome the MS Westerdam was praised by the chief of the World Health Organization (WHO).<\/p>\n It was “an example of the international solidarity we have consistently been calling for”, Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said.<\/p>\n There have been regular health checks for all passengers on board the Westerdam, and there have been no cases so far.<\/p>\n The ship in Japan, quarantined in the port of Yokohama, currently has more than 200 confirmed cases – making the Diamond Princess the largest coronavirus cluster outside China.<\/p>\n Not all passengers have been tested, and the number of cases may continue to rise. Another 44 were added to the tally on Thursday.<\/p>\n Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said elderly passengers who test negative for the virus would be allowed to leave on Friday, five days before the scheduled end of the quarantine.<\/p>\n About 80% of the ship’s passengers are aged 60 or over. Japanese media reports that 215 passengers are in their 80s, and 11 are in their 90s.<\/p>\n Another cruise ship was quarantined for several days off Hong Kong, because a previous guest had been diagnosed with the virus.<\/p>\n All passengers have now been allowed off.<\/p>\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Cruise](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/40AE\/production\/_110885561_52a7accf-4d0c-458d-9e65-5535e0fd7fe9.jpg\")
REUTERS – <\/span><\/span>Passengers have had to kill time and uncertainty<\/figure>\n\n