Cambodia confirms two more COVID-19 cases among Viking boat passengers

Cambodia’s Ministry of Health (MoH) this morning (March 12) announced two more confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The two new cases, comprising a British man aged 73 and his British wife aged 69, are related to a positive case announced earlier in the week. The two were travelling companions of a 65-year-old British woman who tested positive on Monday (March 9).

The three were part of a party of five who flew from London to Hanoi, Vietnam on March 2. A Vietnamese man who had sat near the first woman during the flights subsequently tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Unaware that the man had tested positive the five continued on their journey, departing Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam last Thursday (March 5).

Vietnamese health authorities subsequently alerted their Cambodian counterparts and the Viking River Cruise vessel was quarantined on arrival at Kampong Cham, about 124 kilometres (about 77 miles) northeast of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, on March 7.

When all five were taken to Phnom Penh’s Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital for medical examination last weekend two members of the group reportedly refused to submit samples. The samples of two of the first woman’s travelling companions reportedly tested negative.

A statement issued by the MoH said that all remaining passengers and crew on the boat had tested negative for the SARSCoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19.

The two latest cases have been warded at a hospital in Kampong Cham. It was announced yesterday (March 11) that the first woman was to be transferred to a hospital in Phnom Penh for ongoing treatment today.

Feature photo Fresh News

Related:

COVID-19 in Asean: British woman is Cambodia’s third confirmed case (AEC News Today)
COVID-19 in Asean: update for March 12 — two deaths, 70 new cases (AEC News Today)

Cambodia confirms two more COVID-19 cases among Viking boat passengers added by John Le Fevre on March 12, 2020
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John Le Fevre

Thailand editor at AEC News Today

John is an Australian national with more than 40 years experience as a journalist, photographer, videographer, and copy editor.

He has spent extensive periods of time working in Africa and throughout Southeast Asia, with stints in the Middle East, the USA, and England.

He has covered major world events including Operation Desert Shield/ Storm, the 1991 pillage in Zaire, the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the 1999 East Timor independence unrest, the 2004 Asian tsunami, and the 2009, 2010, and 2014 Bangkok political protests.

In 1995 he was a Walkley Award finalist, the highest awards in Australian journalism, for his coverage of the 1995 Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) Ebola outbreak.

Prior to AEC News Today he was the deputy editor and Thailand and Greater Mekong Sub-region editor for The Establishment Post, predecessor of Asean Today.

In the mid-80s and early 90s he owned JLF Promotions, the largest above and below the line marketing and PR firm servicing the high-technology industry in Australia. It was sold in 1995.