Photo taken on March 11, 2020 shows cruise boat Viking Cruise Journey docking on a river in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia. Cambodia's Ministry of Health announced on Thursday that two more British passengers aboard the cruise boat Viking Cruise Journey tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections on the ship to three. (Photo by So Pheak/Xinhua)
PHNOM PENH, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's Ministry of Health announced on Thursday that two more British passengers aboard the cruise boat Viking Cruise Journey tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections on the ship to three.
In a press statement, the Ministry of Health said authorities took the samples of the remaining 59 passengers and crew for tests at the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia in Phnom Penh on Wednesday.
"The results showed that a 73-year-old British man and his 69-year-old British wife were tested positive for COVID-19," the statement said. "In total, three British passengers out of the 64 passengers and crew aboard the ship were tested positive for the COVID-19."
The statement said the couple were put in isolation rooms at the Kampong Cham provincial referral hospital for treatment and health surveillance, while the other 61 passengers and crew, who tested negative for the virus, were quarantined at an appropriate place onshore for health monitoring.
The lab tests on all people aboard the ship were made after a 65-year-old British female passenger tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, and her four close friends from Britain were also tested on the same day with negative results.
The river cruise boat departed My Tho Port in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam on March 5 and visited Phnom Penh on March 7 before arriving in Kampong Cham City in southeast Cambodia's Kampong Cham province on March 9.
The passengers and crew aboard the ship are from seven countries including the United States, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
To date, Cambodia has recorded five COVID-19 cases.
Photo taken on March 11, 2020 shows cruise boat Viking Cruise Journey docking on a river in Kampong Cham province, Cambodia. Cambodia's Ministry of Health announced on Thursday that two more British passengers aboard the cruise boat Viking Cruise Journey tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections on the ship to three. (Photo by So Pheak/Xinhua)
