6 Sri Lankan sailors displaying symptoms of Coronavirus
Colombo (News 1st) – The Merchant Shipping Association of Sri Lanka stated that 6 sailors of a ship travelling from China to Egypt had fallen ill. President of the Association of Palitha Athukorala said that that the seamen who had fallen ill were onboard the CMA CGM URAL vessal.
According to satellite data the ship had been docked at 3 Chinese ports for over 5 days. On the 11th of this month the ship was docked at the Port of Ningbo, on the 13th at the Xiamen Port, and the ship had then docked at the Shekou Port. The ship arrived in Singapore on the 18th of this month.
The ports at which this ship docked at are located in close proximity to the town of Wuhan, which was identified as the epicenter of the coronavirus. The port of Ningbo is located 922 km away from Wuhan.
This morning the ship was sailing close to Galle Sri Lanka and the ship is due to sail close to Egypt on the 30th of January.
Athukorala noted that they received information that the 6 Sri Lankan sailors were suffering from high fever this morning. He added that according to the ship’s officials the sailors are displaying symptoms of the Coronavirus, but added that it could not be confirmed whether the sailors had come into contact with the virus.
