In a rush to export potential infected cases, Singapore’s Ministry of Health announced that all foreigners onboard the Costa Fortuna will be sent out of the country by tomorrow Thursday (Mar 12):
“All foreign passengers were sent directly to their airport or their hotels by midnight. They will depart from Singapore within the next two days.”
No swab test was done, and none of the passengers was tested. The Singapore government did not disclose how many passengers were showing symptoms, except to say that a doctor certified every one of them.
Minister Lawrence Wong did not explain why there is no need to quarantine the 1,631 passengers despite them having landed in North Italy.
The PAP minister claimed that none of the passengers are infected because they were “checked” upon boarding:
“Many still remember what happened in other cruise ships where there had been virus outbreaks. But this case is different. All passengers, including two Singaporeans, boarded the ship in Singapore on Mar 3. They were all checked and temperature-screened before they boarded. They had sailed off and were scheduled to return to Singapore later.”
There are only 2 Singaporeans among the passengers.
Costa Fortuna docked at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre at 7.35am. The cruise ship was rejected for landing at Malaysia and Thailand as Singapore is a high-risk country of the coronovirus.
Local transmission is out of control in Singapore, with numerous cases exported to South Korea, Malaysia, UK, France, Australia and New Zealand.
There are now 166 cases in Singapore, with a 60% surge in the past two weeks.