Thailand denies cruise ship entry, virus toll passes 1,000

The Westerdam cruise ship docked at Port Everglades in Florida in April 2007. The vessel will not be allowed to disembark passengers at the Laem Chabang port on Thursday. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
The Westerdam cruise ship docked at Port Everglades in Florida in April 2007. The vessel will not be allowed to disembark passengers at the Laem Chabang port on Thursday. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Thailand will not allow a cruise ship from Japan to let passengers disembark at the Laem Chabang port, Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Tuesday.

Mr Anutin posted a short Facebook message saying he has told authorities not to allow the Westerdam ship to dock in Thailand.

The message was posted after the operator of the vessel announced on Monday the ship will let passengers off at the deep-sea port in Chon Buri on Thursday, Kyodo News reported.

The vessel carrying 1,455 passengers -- including four Japanese nationals -- and 802 crew members was scheduled to enter Japan on Saturday. But the Japanese government denied entry to the Westerdam ship after a passenger was suspected of having caught the new coronavirus. It has also been denied debarking in Manila and Guam.

The toll from China's deadly coronavirus outbreak passed 1,000 on Tuesday after President Xi Jinping called for more "decisive" measures to tackle the outbreak in a rare visit to a frontline hospital, according to AFP.

Xi has largely kept out of the public eye since the virus outbreak spread across the country from Hubei province to infect more than 42,000 people.

Learn from listening

Click play to listen to audio for this story, or download to save the file
: :

Vocabulary

  • authority (noun): a person or government agency who has the power to make decisions or enforce the law - เจ้าหน้าที่ผู้มีอำนาจ
  • decisive: strong; firm - ซึ่งเด็ดเดี่ยว
  • denied: a refusal to allow somebody to have something - ปฎิเสธ, ไม่ยอมรับ
  • dock (verb): to arrive at an enclosed area of water in a port, where ships stay; to stop a boat at a landing point such as a pier - จอดเรือ, เทียบท่า
  • outbreak: the sudden start of a disease - การระบาดของโรค
  • port: an area of water where ships stop, including the buildings around it - ท่าเรือ
  • rare: not happening very often - หาได้ยาก
  • suspected: thought to be something - เป็นที่สงสัย
  • vessel: a boat or ship - เรือ

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (2)
MORE IN SECTION