Two ships - one from China and another from Hong Kong - docked in Manila (Luzon Island, Philippines) this week, with nearly 800 Chinese cruise passengers allowed to disembark. However, the vessel from Hong Kong, which arrived on Monday, January 27, was not allowed to proceed to Subic Bay and both ships were ordered to return to the ports of origin.
The passengers were found to be free of symptoms of coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Philippine health officials assured.
Turning back the vessels, however, was seen as part of the measures to prevent the spread of the virus in the Philippines.
According to Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Capt. Armand Balilo, they had received notice from Subic port authorities prohibiting the entry of World Dream with 778 cruise passengers from Hong Kong instead of a total of 4,000 since the ship did not pick up travellers at Chinese ports.
The other Chinese ship, MV Ligulao, arrived on Monday from Lianyungang, Jiangsu, China carrying vehicles with twenty crew members.
For Coronavirus updates on cruise ship quarantines (infected passengers and crew) and top-pandemic countries (COVID-19 cases and deaths, daily updated statistics) see at CruiseMapper's Norovirus page.