Japanese cruise ship arrives in Honolulu but keeps passengers on board
A Japanese cruise ship that arrived this morning in Honolulu from Mexico departed this afternoon without its passengers disembarking.
The Nippon Maru has not been quarantined and no passengers were reported to be displaying symptoms of the novel coronavirus, according to the state Harbors Division.
But “the vessel, on its own discretion, decided not to disembark in Honolulu,” said Shelly Kunishige, spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation.
The ship arrived at 6:45 a.m. today and moored at Pier 2C. It departed at 5 p.m., according to vesseltracker.com.
Kunishige said she had no information on what ports passengers aboard the ship had disembarked at, nor did she know where the cruise originated.
DOT did not have information on what reason, if any, was given by the cruise ship for not disembarking in Honolulu.
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The coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, has spread to at least two cruise ships in Japan and Hong Kong, keeping thousands of people on board quarantined.
At least six Hawaii residents are among the 3,700 crew and passengers aboard the Diamond Princess, docked a mile off Yokohama, Japan, who have been quarantined to their rooms since Tuesday. Japan confirmed today 41 new cases of the virus on the Diamond Princess, adding to 20 escorted off the ship earlier.
The quarantine will last 14 days, the incubation period for the coronavirus.
Japan has a new immigration policy that went into effect today to ensure border control to prevent the disease from entering and spreading further into Japan, which had 86 confirmed cases as of Thursday.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Thursday that Japan will deny entry of foreign passengers on another cruise ship heading to Okinawa from Hong Kong because of suspected coronavirus patients found on that ship.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.