Taiwan has announced it will temporarily ban foreign cruise ships from docking at Taiwanese ports.
That’s after cases of a novel coronavirus were found aboard a cruise ship that had docked at the port of Keelung on January 31. Twenty passengers aboard the Diamond Princes have contracted the virus. One of these patients is a Taiwanese national. The ship is now under quarantine in the Japanese port of Yokohama with thousands of passengers still onboard.
Over 2000 passengers disembarked in Taiwan during the ship’s stop in Keelung, leading to fears that passengers may have unknowingly spread the virus while ashore.
In response, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung announced a ban on cruise ships calling at Taiwanese ports from Thursday. Chen said the move is necessary because experts have said it is nearly impossible to control diseases onboard cruise ships.