After almost two weeks longer than planned, the passengers of the Dutch cruise ship Westerdam went ashore in Cambodia. They were received on the pier of the coastal town of Sihanoukville by Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia, who turned it into a true media show.
For fear of the corona virus, the Holland America Line ship had previously been refused in Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines and Japan.
It was striking that no one in Cambodia wore a face mask. Neither does Prime Minister Hun Sen. The prime minister, who has been in power for 35 years, is good friends with China. He does not want to know anything about fear of the virus, he previously threatened to expel journalists and foreigners who wear face masks from the country. Quite ironic because the Thai minister of health wanted just the opposite.
All passengers on board the Westerdam have had a brief medical examination. Twenty passengers have been tested for Covid-19, but they were not found to be infected. In the coming days, the passengers, including about 90 Dutch people, will travel to the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to fly home from there.
News update on the Coronavirus
- China has announced that more than 24 new infections have been registered in the past 5000 hours. This brings the total to 63.581. In the epicenter of the outbreak, Hubei province, 116 new deaths from the virus have been reported. This brings the total death toll in China to 1380.
- No new infections have been reported in Thailand, so the number remains at 33 patients.
- In Japan, an eighty-year-old woman has died from the consequences of Covid-19, Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato reported on Thursday. The victim lived in Kanagawa in the capital region of the country. The woman is the first person to die in Japan from the effects of the virus. She is also the second fatality outside of China.
- In China, two existing drugs are being tested on large groups of patients. These are drugs against MERS such as remdesivir.
Insights into the functioning of the new Coronavirus
The Journal Watch Infectious Diseases of the New England Journal of Medicine contains some interesting facts about the new novel coronavirus. The official name of the virus is: SARS-CoV-2 and of the disease: COVID-19.
- People over the age of 60 with chronic diseases (e.g. cardiovascular and lung diseases) are particularly at risk.
- The mean age of patients in the hospital is 56 years (range, 22–92). Of these, 54,3% are men.
- Children under the age of 15 may be susceptible, but do not become ill. They can probably pass on the disease.
- The incubation period averages 5,2 days.
- The most common symptom at the onset of infection is fever (98,6%), followed by fatigue and dry cough in about half of the patients. Muscle pain and tightness occur in one third of all patients. About 10%, 1 to 2 days before the onset of the fever, first developed diarrhea and also became nauseated.
- What is striking is that some patients had no fever but atypical abdominal symptoms. Even cough and shortness of breath were not that common. Screening for fever alone therefore appears to be ineffective.
- The infectivity of a virus is expressed by R0 (a commonly used term that indicates the number of infections that a carrier spreads on average). The estimated R0 for is now at 2,2 and that is worrying. The relatively high R0 of Covid-19 is even comparable to that of SARS and the Spanish flu of 1918. This number could mean that it will be very difficult to fight the virus.
Source: Bangkok Post and Dutch media
Big loss of face for Thailand. Personal welcome with flowers. Fantastic. The Thai minister should be ashamed
Personal reception??
Very clever what that crook does to do that in the lion's den!
Because that's Sihanoukville! Where almost all hotels and casinos are owned by Chinese. The Cambodians will not have much to say there.
Promoting itself and the coastal town, nothing more!
From such a remark I understand that Peer himself must have been there more than once to be able to draw this conclusion and if not then the reaction has no value at all.
I was not on that boat, but on TV I saw that passengers also said that Guam was also an option, but that the US did not think it was a good plan.
HAL and Guam are both American but the passenger will lie even though it would be a logical solution.
Maybe he can do that during the mandatory extra/second check for the virus by Thailand. The passengers have already been screened in Cambodia, found clean and are traveling back home via Bangkok.
“The health authorities have ordered strict screening of passengers from the MS Westerdam and others arriving on flights or land from Cambodia after the cruise ship was allowed to berth in Sihanoukville on Thursday.”
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1857819/visitors-from-cambodia-face-testing
Meanwhile in Cambodia, the minister there says it was their duty. And the passengers through Cambodia could have been welcomed with flowers and a free visa. That earned Cambodia a compliment from passengers and various organisations. The Thai minister throws his glasses even further.
“Prime Minister Hun Sen, flew in from Phnom Penh, shaking hands with passengers and handing out roses. Government officials draped “Welcome to Cambodia” banners on buses. All passengers were given free visas.
“Our current disease around the world is fear and discrimination,” said Hun Sen. “If Cambodia didn't allow this ship to dock, where should these 2,000 passengers go?” ”
- https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1858184/westerdam-passengers-hail-best-cruise-ever
- https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1857574/passengers-on-ship-turned-away-over-virus-fears-disembark-in-cambodia
A show for the world stage now that his country can expect sanctions from the EU due to human rights and the unfree press.
'Journalists out of the country' should be seen as a blessing because in Cambodia the entire free press is in jail next to the opposition. Thailand and Vietnam are taking strict measures such as mass quarantine and the mask story, but Cambodia has been able to detect ONE, it is said, ONE case of the virus. Cambodia and Laos are like a white spot in virus country and it is suspected that the sick are being kept under wraps. Yes, that way I can also hand out a flower and be the big gentleman…
A sham of the highest order.
And how many positive do you think there are in Thailand? The point here is that Thailand initially agreed, then refused and then permission may be requested again. No one was infected on the Westendam. So what was the problem? In front of the world, supposedly protecting Thailand from the virus, but Chinese are coming in en masse. Maybe you and I have been infected without knowing it. The face mask madness is also decreasing here. And every time I think of the statement that every foreigner has to leave the country without protection. And this while there are currently more Thais walking around without such a thing than with. Sitting here, for example, in a restaurant, where only the waitress wears a face mask and the rest all without.
With the strict policy, it's really not too bad. And no one can say, in any country, how many are actually infected