Thousands of people confined to a cruise ship in Hong Kong for five days were authorized to disembark this Sunday, the 1,800 crew members having tested negative for the new coronavirus.
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Health officials in the former British colony said they had lifted the quarantine measures that had been imposed on the 1,800 passengers and 1,800 crew members on the vessel. They had been put in place because the authorities feared that certain staff members contracted the 2019-nCoV virus during a previous trip and thus became contagious.
Three Chinese passengers infected were indeed on board the ship was going to Vietnam between January 19 and 24. The Hong Kong government had therefore immobilized the liner on its arrival Wednesday in Hong Kong so that tests were carried out on each member of the crew. The passengers did not need to undergo them because they were not in contact with the three Chinese holidaymakers carrying the virus in January.
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Since its appearance in the city of Wuhan, in central China, more than 37,200 people have been infected in mainland China and 36 in Hong Kong. The new coronavirus has killed more than 800 people, almost all in China, since its appearance in December.
