Coronavirus fears as yet ANOTHER ship is put on lockdown with 2,000 passengers stranded in Sydney harbour
A CRUISE ship with more than 2,000 people on board has been put on lockdown in Sydney while a woman is tested for the deadly coronavirus.
Shocked passengers were left stranded in Sydney Harbour as NSW Health authorities boarded the Norwegian Jewel after it docked in the city on Friday at 7.30am.
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The woman in her 50s suspected of being infected with the virus was taken to hospital as she appeared to be suffering from respiratory illness.
Passengers were kept on the ship for an hour after being screened.
The vessel, which had just arrived from a 10-day tour of New Zealand, was scheduled to travel to Melbourne on Saturday.
But a spokesman for NSW Health said that the screening was a precaution and denied that anyone on board was suffering from respiratory issues.
She said: "To mitigate any impact of this rare occurrence, we implemented stringent sanitation procedures.
"As such a thorough inspection and rigorous cleaning and disinfection of the ship and terminal were conducted."
There are 15 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia and authorities have also checked more than 16,000 incoming passengers at the airport, with no cases recorded.
DEADLY CRUISE
The crisis follows the quarantine of the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan on 9 Feb after 61 passengers on the ship were diagnosed with the coronavirus.
Officials ordered the remaining 3,700 to stay in their cabins to stop the virus spreading.
Another cruise ship, the MS Westerdam, was left stranded at sea after being denied permission to dock by five ports in Asia over coronavirus fears.
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The ship was finally allowed to dock in Cambodia yesterday.
According to the English-language Khmer Times, the ship will allow passengers to disembark on Friday, after 20 people on board suspected of having the deadly coronavirus tested negative.
Coronavirus, which started in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has so far killed 1,115 people and infected over 45,000, including nine people in the UK.
