[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The presence of 64 cruise passengers just arrived from Italy was enough to leave the Costa Fortuna ship with 1600 passengers and almost 1000 crew members at sea – without allowing it to dock on the Thai island of Phuket.

Local newspapers had reported in the morning the statements of the head of the Immigration office of the famous island, according to which the 64 (all from southern Italy) were “suspected of having contracted the” Covid-19 “, a false statement according to the captain of the “Fortuna”, which denies having found cases of illness neither among the 1630 passengers of all nationalities than among the crew on board, about 980 people.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFAcQI-qbfU&feature=youtu.be” align=”center” title=”Phuket officials screen over 2000 tourists from Costa Fortuna cruise ship”][vc_column_text]There were also 167 other Italians on the ship, who had long since embarked on the same cruise that sailed between Singapore, Phuket, Langkawi and Penang in Malaysia, and for this reason they had not even been mentioned in the Thai official’s statements.

In any case, Thailand has applied for the first time one of the strictest protection rules against virus infections which provides for a mandatory quarantine period for anyone coming from Italy. In the case of the Costa Fortuna given the situation, the commander preferred to continue on the route of the next scheduled stop, Penang Port in Malaysia, in the hope of being able to disembark passengers for a stop. All the Italians will disembark except for the 64 “suspects” who will have to carry out checks.

Otherwise, a situation similar to that occurred on the Westerdam ship, refused by the authorities of Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and Thailand, could occur before being accepted in Cambodia where only two passengers with the symptoms of the coronavirus.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]