Cruise ship with suspected coronavirus case will not now come to Limassol (Updated)

A cruise liner with a suspected coronavirus passenger aboard will ultimately not be stopping over at Limassol on Friday, after initial reports that it would.

Earlier, Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos had said the ship was headed for Cyprus.

“On the instructions of President Anastasiades, the cruise liner will remain in anchorage, therefore there is no question of the passengers disembarking,” Karousos had tweeted.

“Regarding the single passenger’s state of health, we are in contact with the ministry of health on how to deal with it.”

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Karousos said there are approximately 1,000 people on board, including passengers and crew.

“It won’t be allowed to dock at Limassol. It will remain in anchorage at sea close to the shore. No one gets off, we’re clear about that,” he said at the time.

The reportedly ill passenger on board is said to be an elderly woman.

But in a new tweet later, Karousos said the ship would not be stopping in Limassol after all.
“The cruise ship has been informed [of the status] and in the end it let us know it will not be making a stop in Limassol.”

The cruiseliner is called the ‘Marco Polo’. There are a number of vessels registered with that name. Karousos did not identify which country’s flag the ship is flying.

He said the cruise ship had started off from India, then made its way through the Suez Canal. At some point it approached or docked in Jordan, and later asked to dock in Israel, but was denied.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.