Holland America Line and health authorities are on a worldwide hunt for passengers who came into to contact with an elderly American passenger who tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) over the weekend while on her way home from an aborted cruise in Asia.
The Carnival Corp subsidiary has confirmed that the 85-year old woman was a passenger on its 82,900-gt cruiseship Westerdam (built 2004). She was one of 1,455 passengers who were able to leave the ship in the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville at the end of last week after it spent almost two weeks looking for a place to dock after being turned away from numerous Asian countries.
Health experts fear the dispersal of the Westerdam's passengers could create clusters of outbreaks worldwide if more passengers have been infected.
Holland America said that it tested the temperatures of all passengers before they were allowed to disembark, while Cambodian health professionals performed COVID-19 tests on those who had complained of being ill at the ship’s medical centre. The results gave no indications that any of the passengers were infected.
The woman is said to have not visited the medical centre nor showed an signs of fever, but complained of being ill while on a transit stop at KLIA during her flight home. Health authorities at the airport transferred her to a local hospital where she tested positive for COVID-19.
Holland America and health officials are now attempting to track down other passengers from the ship, most of whom who have been dispersed to their home countries, to make sure they get screened for the contagious illness.
At least 236 passengers and 747 crew remain aboard the vessel off Sihanoukville. Several hundred others are in hotels in Phnom Penh, the capital. All will be tested for COVD-19 by the Cambodian Ministry of Health.
Dr. Grant Tarling, Holland America’s chief medical officer, said in a media statement that the company was working in close coordination with leading health experts from around the world.
“These experts are working with the appropriate national health authorities to investigate and follow-up with individuals who may have come in contact with the guest.”
While the coronavirus outbreak has been largely contained in China, with small pockets in other countries, health experts fear that the dispersal of the Westerdam’s passengers could have the potential of spreading the disease globally .
Infectious disease expert Dr. William Shaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, told Reuters that the shock development involving the Westerdam passenger had the potential of being a turning point in the spread of the coronavirus.
“We have potentially many (infected former passengers) in many countries, and all it would require is just the establishment of another outbreak in another country and that could potentially tip the scales,” he said.
This latest development came as the US government evacuated US citizens from Princess Cruises’ 115,900-gt Diamond Princess (built 2004) after expressing fears that quarantining passengers on board a ship may in fact cause the disease to spread even faster.
A total of 355 people on board the Diamond Princess have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past two weeks, making it the largest hotspot for the disease outside of China.
