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Seven Spaniards are being held in Cambodia as they were traveling on the Westerdam cruise, from the Holland America Line shipping company, which docked early Friday morning at the port of Sihanoukville after authorities allowed the cruise ship to disembark after discarding In principle, some of them were carriers of the virus. However, an 83-year-old American woman tested positive for a coronavirus at a control in Kuala Lumpur, having traveled from Cambodia.

Of the Spanish group, one woman is among the 747 crew members and 236 passengers still on the ship, and four other Spanish citizens are among the 300 passengers who have been located in a luxury hotel in Phnom Penh . All of them will have to wait for new coronavirus tests to be able to leave Cambodia.

After the positive coronavirus was detected, the Cambodian authorities have suspended all charter flights to evacuate passengers on the ship that are on board or in the territory of their country until they have been tested and examined before they can be repatriated

Westerdam , which was banned in five Asian ports for fear of the outbreak, after more than 10 days at sea, was finally authorized to dock at the southern port of Sihanoukville. Of the 1,455 passengers, more than 1,200 disembarked from the ship.

Coronavirus (interactive)

The disembarked passengers began Friday to be transferred to the airports of Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh, and from there to Kuala Lumpur, at the beginning of the process of returning to their countries that was expected to last between two and three days. 145 have passed through Malaysia, including the 83-year-old American tourist who tested positive for the coronavirus on Saturday at the Kuala Lumpur airport.

Since then, the company Holland America, owner of Westerdam , and the authorities are worried about the possible contagion of other passengers who have already taken the return route.

Holland America is "in close coordination" with several governments, the World Health Organization and the testing centers of the United States "to investigate and monitor people who may have been in contact" with the American tourist.

For its part, the Cambodian Ministry of Health said it was "actively seeking any suspicious case," urging the population to "not worry too much" while some of the ship's passengers walked through Sihanoukville after disembarking.

For its part, the Malaysian Government has announced that it will not allow it to dock at its ports any cruise that proceeds or has made a stopover in China to prevent contagions after the coronavirus was detected in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, the American woman of Westerdam who had landed in Cambodia.

The woman and her husband, who tested negative, were admitted yesterday to a hospital in the Malaysian capital, while the country's authorities canceled all flights from Cambodia.

The ship planned to arrive on Saturday in the Japanese city of Yokohama, but Japanese authorities denied entry after a person on board showed symptoms similar to those of the coronavirus.

Cambodia authorized the arrival of the cruise ship to its territory after it had been rejected by the authorities of Taiwan, the Philippines, Guam and Thailand, which made the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) They will praise the Cambodian government this Saturday.

More contagions

The case of Westerdam took place after the Japanese authorities quarantined another cruise ship, the Diamond Princess , where at least 355 of its 3,700 people on board have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The United States today proceeded to repatriate some 380 citizens of its country and their relatives who were in quarantine aboard a cruise ship in the Japanese port of Yokohama.

In addition to repatriated US citizens, another 44 who were at the Diamond Princess and tested positive for the new coronavirus will remain in hospitals in Japan where they have been hospitalized, according to local media.

The evacuees embarked on two charter flights that departed at 7.05 local time today (22.05 GMT on Sunday) from Tokyo airport of Haneda, after being transported from Yokohama (south of Tokyo) in buses of the Self-Defense Forces (Army) of Japan.

The US embassy in Japan thanked in a statement to the Government of Tokyo and the Japanese troops "their collaboration and commitment to protect the welfare of US citizens."

The evacuees will be subjected to a new quarantine after their arrival at military bases in the United States , as a preventive measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus that has affected 355 people of the 3,700 They were aboard the Diamond Princess cruise.

Covid-19 disease has killed nearly 1,800 people and infected more than 70,000 to date, mainly in mainland China.

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