The Mexican port authorities backed down and authorized the berthing of a tourist cruise ship on the island of Cozumel, which was not allowed to stop in Jamaica or the Cayman Islands, after confirming that one of its workers suffers from a flu condition, and it was not Coronavirus.
The captain of the MSC Meraviglia was initially notified that he was not authorized to dock in Cozumel, but shortly afterwards the decision was reversed and he was given notice that he could dock as scheduled.
“The cancellation notice sent previously is invalidated due to the rectification of the arrival by International Health in Cozumel, Quintana Roo,” says an official document.
The same document authorizes the cruise to use the outer band of the Punta Langosta cruise terminal in Cozumel from 21:30 local time on Wednesday Feb. 26th, until 18:00 local time on Thursday, February 27.
The ship carries 4,500 passengers and a crew of 1,600 people.
In a press conference offered in Chetumal, the Secretary of Health of Quintana Roo, Alejandra Aguirre Crespo, announced that they were notified that the sick person aboard the cruise was negative to clinical tests and only presents an influenza condition.
“The notification of arrival of a cruise ship from Jamaica was received, which allegedly had a person aboard with symptoms of acute respiratory illness. We already have information about the patient, fortunately it is not a case of coronavirus, it does not meet the operational definition in such a way that today we continue without cases in Quintana Roo”, the Health Secretary stated.
The cruise docked in Cozumel on Wednesday night, although passengers were not allowed to leave the ship for at least a few hours, while being under observation.
The Swiss shipping company said that all tourists and workers on board have undergone an individual check-up at the time of boarding and none of them tested positive for coronavirus.
The company declared that it prevents those who have traveled to China, Hong Kong or Macao from their cruises, or that in the last 14 days have been in the northern areas of Italy, where cases of Wuhan coronavirus have arisen.
The northern areas of Italy that have been placed in quarantine, are exactly 10 municipalities in the Lombardy region and one in Veneto, where cases of Wuhan coronavirus have emerged.
In addition, all MSC ships control their passengers at the time of boarding to see if they have symptoms such as fever equal to or greater than 38 degrees, tremor, cough, or breathing difficulties, in which case it prevents them from boarding the ship.
In that context, experts from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) pointed out that, at this time, in Mexico there is no cause for alarm about the epidemic of Covid-19 disease that mainly affects China.
They pointed out that there is still no active virus circulation, but the situation will change in the coming weeks and the magnitude of the problem in our country cannot be predicted. However, helath authorities say that we must be prepared for an outbreak scenario.
From an economic point of view, this is a serious issue on a world scale, that could cause a situation of instability from which it could be hard to recover.
The global economy is threatened, because the economic and productive structure is intertwined, thus, the stock market crash is significant but, above all, the loss of value chains.
Mexico’s economic project could be significantly affected by the coronavirus because China is a nation that imports and exports a large number of products and its production plant has now stopped, as entire Chinese cities are in quarantine.
The coronavirus has spread, in addition to China, to countries such as: South Korea, Japan, Italy, Iran, France, Germany, Spain, Croatia, the United States and now also to Latin America, in Brazil.
The Yucatan TimesNewsroom
