Coronavirus: Cruise line bans passengers who have visited China in past 30 days

MSC Cruises said it would deep clean all of its ships

A cruise line has banned holidaymakers who have visited mainland China in the past 30 days from boarding its ships amid coronavirus fears.

MSC Cruises, which has 19 ships, will ask guests to fill in a questionnaire before boarding.

Anybody who has travelled from or via mainland China, where the coronavirus outbreak has killed 213 people, in the past 30 days would be denied boarding to its ships, the cruise line said.

MSC added that it would conduct thermal scans for all guests and crew before boarding, and people with a fever of more than 38C or other signs of illness would be denied boarding. Holidaymakers who developed signs of fever during the cruise would be isolated in their cabins.

In addition, MSC said it would carry out deep cleaning on every ship in the fleet.

It follows news yesterday that around 6,000 passengers were stranded on a cruise ship in Italy amid fears that a passenger onboard had contracted coronavirus.

Tests were carried out on a 54-year-old woman from Macau, and her and her husband were placed in an isolation unit onboard the Costa Smeralda ship.

The liner, which belongs to Costa Cruises, was docked in Civitavecchia, a port north of Rome, and thousands of holidaymakers were kept onboard the ship while tests were carried out.

Costa Cruises subsequently announced that Italian health officials diagnosed the passenger onboard with the common flu.

Airlines around the world have grounded flights to China amid the deadly flu-like virus outbreak.