Thousands of passengers and crew have been stranded on a cruise ship in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour for several days.
The vessel returned to the city after it was turned away from Taiwan following the discovery that it had carried eight passengers infected with the new coronavirus during a January cruise. The infected passengers were evacuated and given medical care under isolation.
Concerns about potential infection among thousands of passengers at sea expose the vulnerability of cruise ships to viral illnesses, like the coronavirus. The threat also raises questions about the durability of Asia’s booming leisure cruise industry, which counts the elderly as among its most loyal customers. Older people are especially susceptible to the Wuhan coronavirus — China’s National Health Commission said Tuesday that 80% of all fatalities in mainland China were over the age of 60.
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