The passengers and crew stuck on a Genting Cruise Lines vessel in Hong Kong have been allowed to disembark.
They left the 3,364-berth World Dream (built 2017) after tests for coronavirus came back negative, Hong Kong authorities confirmed.
The ship was quarantined last Wednesday after it emerged that three people from a previous cruise were later found to have contracted the virus.
Dream Cruises said it will be "suspending operations of World Dream until further notice effective immediately".
“ The government today announced that the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the department of health had completed tests on the novel coronavirus for over 1,800 crew members on the World Dream cruise. All samples tested negative for the novel coronavirus,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement Sunday.
“The Port Health Division has completed health quarantine work on the World Dream cruise and all people on board can disembark.”
The Hong Kong government said it would facilitate immigration procedures for passengers, while the cruise line would arrange for passengers to disembark and them with a shuttle bus service.
“The government expresses appreciation to passengers and crew members for their understanding and patience during the past few days, and to the cruise company for its cooperation with the government in implementing preventive and control measures,” the statement added.
A spokesperson for the Hong Kong government reiterated that: “In view of the spread of the novel coronavirus infection in the community, public health is our utmost priority.
“As some travellers who took the World Dream cruise were earlier confirmed to have been infected with the novel coronavirus, some crew members might have had direct contact with them.
“Upon relevant experts’ advice, the CHP decided to conduct tests on crew members with a view to protecting the health of passengers.
“The purpose of the tests is to exclude that they are infected and thus will not pose health threats to the passengers.”
