People aboard both ships are being given health screenings, and those with suspicious symptoms are being tested for the virus that has quickly spread throughout mainland China and beyond.
The Diamond Princess is anchored off the coast of Yokohama, near Tokyo, with 1,045 crew and 2,666 passengers -- including 428 Americans -- on board.
The second ship, the World Dream, is docked at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Cruise Terminal with 1,800 people on board, the city's Department of Health said Wednesday.
Concerns about potential infection among thousands of passengers at sea exposes the vulnerability of cruise ships to viral illnesses, like the coronavirus. The threat also raises questions about the durability of Asia's booming leisure cruise industry, which counts the elderly as among its most loyal customers.
Older people are especially susceptible to the Wuhan coronavirus -- China's National Health Commission said Tuesday that 80% of all fatalities in mainland China were over the age of 60.
The virus has infected more than 20,000 people in mainland China and nearly 200 worldwide across 25 countries and territories. It has claimed 492 lives worldwide, all but two in mainland China.
Cruise companies worldwide have vowed to enact extra measures to protect their customers from infection, with several barring passengers who have been to mainland China in the past 14 days.
Ships are considered particularly at risk from outbreaks, due to the close living quarters of passengers and crew. Researchers are still unsure exactly how the coronavirus spreads and how infectious it is.
Chinese officials had previously said that patients can be infectious even if they are not presenting symptoms. An early study on asymptomatic transmission of the virus published last week in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine appeared to confirm Chinese health officials' assessment.
But public health officials now say the report may be flawed. Interviews with the Chinese patient at the center of the study revealed she may have actually had mild, nonspecific symptoms.
An important factor yet to be determined is whether the Wuhan coronavirus spreads via the fecal-oral route, like norovirus and Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), according to Dr. John Nicholls, a clinical professor in pathology at the University of Hong Kong.
Norovirus is a contagious stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhea that is notorious for infecting cruise passengers.
Viruses like norovirus spread so quickly on cruises on cruises because "you've got so many people in a crowded area and people are sharing areas, touching places," Nicholls said.
14 days on board
Ten cases of the Wuhan coronavirus have been confirmed aboard the Diamond Princess off Japan.
The infected passengers include one American, two Australians, two Japanese and three Hong Kong citizens. One Filipino crew member is also ill, Princess Cruises, which operates the Diamond Princess, said in a statement.
They will be taken ashore by the Japanese Coast Guard and transferred to local hospitals. The rest of the passengers on board will remain under quarantine for at least 14 days, "as required by the Ministry of Health," the statement added.
The cases were detected after medical officials went room-to-room to check each guests' temperature and condition, Japan's health ministry said in a statement. Those who showed symptoms were subject to further testing.
More passengers than expected needed to be temporarily quarantined while being tested, the statement said. More than 100 test results are still pending, it added. The company also said the first phase of screening of all the passengers on board has been completed.
Spencer Fehrenbacher, a traveler on the ship, told CNN he was tested because he complained about a sore throat and fever last week. He said swabs were taken of the left and right side of his throat.
Fehrenbacher, a US citizen living in Tianjin, China, and studying for a masters degree there, said he was in good spirits. He is on the cruise with his roommate from Tianjin and two other friends.
"The Princess crew has been incredible in their support and communication up to this point," he said. "They're providing complimentary internet to everyone on board to ensure that everyone is able to communicate with family and friends."
Questions in Hong Kong
Three former passengers who took a World Dream cruise from January 19 to 24 to Vietnam tested positive for the coronavirus after they'd left the ship, the ship's operator, Dream Cruises, said in a statement.
The company said 4,482 passengers and 1,814 crew members were on board for that voyage.
Before boarding, all passengers received what the company called "stringent temperatures checks" at Nansha, Dream Cruises said.
Anyone who had a fever was then tested for the coronavirus by the Nansha Center for Disease Control and Prevention. All tests came back negative at the time, Dream Cruises added.
The passengers on that journey disembarked at two stops -- in Nansha in southern China and in Hong Kong -- on 24 January after the cruise to Vietnam, the Hong Kong Department of Health said at a news conference Wednesday.
The crew stayed on and the World Dream then picked up a different set of passengers before arriving in Hong Kong Wednesday morning, Hong Kong authorities said.
Dream Cruises' statement said that once it found out about two of the three infected passengers Monday, it sealed off the cabins where they had been staying. The company said it found out about the first case on Sunday through "Chinese media sources."
The current group of passengers got on for another itinerary, but the exact stops are unclear. Dream Cruises and its parent company, Genting Hong Kong, did not reply to CNN's phone calls and emails seeking clarification.
The World Dream departed the southern Taiwanese port city of Kaohsiung for Hong Kong on February 4. Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare said the World Dream docked there but passengers were not allowed to leave.
In the meantime, Dream Cruises said it was attempting to contact all the passengers who had been on the January 19 to 24 cruise "to inform them of the situation and to remind them to seek professional medical assistance at their local Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or health authorities should any symptoms arise or if they have any questions."
"Crew members that worked in the affected cabins have also been isolated in their crew quarters with daily temperature checks and, since 24 January onwards, there have been no virus-related health issues among any members of its crew," the company said.
Hong Kong's Health Department said Wednesday some 30 members of the crew reported feeling sick, but all are in stable condition. Three who reported fevers are in isolation in a Hong Kong hospital for further testing.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiVmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNubi5jb20vMjAyMC8wMi8wNS9hc2lhL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNydWlzZS1xdWFyYW50aW5lcy1pbnRsLWhuay9pbmRleC5odG1s0gFaaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuY25uLmNvbS9jbm4vMjAyMC8wMi8wNS9hc2lhL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNydWlzZS1xdWFyYW50aW5lcy1pbnRsLWhuay9pbmRleC5odG1s?oc=5
2020-02-05 09:00:00Z
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