Passengers held on World Dream cruise have left the vessel

Passengers held on the Genting (Hong Kong)-owned World Dream due to fear they may be infected by the novel coronavirus have left the vessel following the completion of testing by the Centre for Health Protection (CHP).

Subsequent to the notification of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection the CHP’s Port Health Division efforted in carrying out the port health inspection work on the cruise.

Personnel of the Port Health Division have been assessing the health condition of over 1,800 passengers and over 1,800 crew members on board through health declaration and temperature checking. Samples were collected from all crew members reported to have symptoms for testing on novel coronavirus. All passengers and crew members were required to stay on board prior to completion of the health inspection and permission by the DH.

Now the Port Health Division of the Department of Health has completed health quarantine work on the World Dream cruise and all people on board have now disembarked. The Government will facilitate immigration procedures for passengers. The cruise company will arrange passengers to disembark in an orderly manner and will provide them with a shuttle bus service.

A spokesperson for the Hong Kong Government reiterated:

“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 was to exclude that they are infected and thus will not pose health threats to the passengers.”