page_title: COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships
section_title: Westerdam
hierarchical_section_title: COVID-19 pandemic on cruise ships / Ships with confirmed cases on board / Westerdam
caption_attribution_description: English: Westerdam docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 24, 2015.
context_page_description: The COVID-19 pandemic spread to a number of cruise ships, with the nature of such ships—including crowded semi-enclosed areas, increased exposure to new environments, and limited medical resources—contributing to the heightened risk and rapid spread of the disease.
  The British-registered Diamond Princess was the first cruise ship to have a major outbreak on board, with the ship quarantined at Yokohama from 4 February 2020 for approximately one month. Over 700 people became infected, and 14 people died. At the time, the ship accounted for over half the reported cases of SARS-CoV-2 outside of mainland China.
  Governments and ports responded by preventing many cruise ships from docking and advising people to avoid travelling on cruise ships. Similarly, many cruise lines suspended their operations to mitigate the spread of the pandemic.
  As of 2 May 2020, over 40 cruise ships have had confirmed positive cases of coronavirus on board. The last cruise ship with passengers aboard during the first wave of the pandemic, Artania, docked at its home port with its last eight passengers on 8 June 2020.
context_section_description: In February 2020, the Holland America Line ship MS Westerdam, departing after a stop in Hong Kong on 1 February, was not allowed to call in the Philippines, Japan, and Guam over concerns regarding coronavirus infections. After initially receiving approval on 10 February to let the passengers disembark in Thailand, as the ship was heading to Laem Chabang port near Bangkok, permission to dock was refused the next day. However, the ship was still maintaining its course to Bangkok and at around 10:30 am CET on 11 February, Westerdam sailed around the southern tip of Vietnam. According to Flip Knibbe, a Dutch passenger on the ship, all the passengers had their temperatures checked a second time. Speaking to NOS on 11 February, Knibbe said "Dit schip is virusvrij": 'This ship is virus-free'. Unlike Diamond Princess, those on board were not in quarantine. Everyone could move freely, shops and restaurants were open and the entertainment programme continued.
  After Westerdam was refused at several points of call, on 13 February, the ship was allowed to dock in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. At this point, only the 20 passengers who reported feeling ill were tested, and all of them tested negative.
  On 15 February, Malaysia reported that an 83-year-old US citizen who disembarked from Westerdam and flew into Malaysia on 14 February had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. In a second test, requested by both the Holland America Line and Cambodian authorities the woman tested positive again. Despite these findings, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen visited the ship, discouraged use of masks, and encouraged the passengers to tour the city, sparking concerns that another spoke was being added to the contagion network. Further cruise passengers were denied entry to Malaysia from Cambodia as a result.
  On 22 February, after treatment with antiviral medications that were speculated to have an effect against COVID-19, the woman's medical condition improved and she was tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initially stated that the woman had never been infected by SARS-CoV-2, but withdrew the claim, clarifying that the CDC "[has] no visibility on whether the initial test of the woman was anything other than positive". Due to possible background politics, it is uncertain whether these results were a false negative, or whether the passenger cleared the virus from her system after 72 hours of intensive treatment.
caption: Westerdam on 24 November 2015
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