Coronavirus: Indonesia gets tough with ship’s docking

Cruise ship passengers have had their travel itinerary thrown into disarray after their ship was denied access to three Indonesian ports.

Cruise ship Viking Sun on a 245-day world cruise. Picture: News Corp Australia

Travellers on the “longest continuous passenger cruise” have had their travel itinerary thrown into disarray after their ship was denied access to three Indonesian ports over coronavirus fears.

Earlier stops by the MV Viking Sun ship in Australia prompted concern from Indonesian officials that some of its 848 passengers, ­including from Australia, could be carrying the COVID-19 virus.

The ship was originally turned away from Bali’s Benoa port on Saturday, with the island’s Governor, Wayan Koster, saying he had decided to deny permission to dock after a meeting with health authorities in the capital, Denpasar.

“As the best tourist destination in the world, we are very prone to health issues. Thus, we have to be careful,” Mr Koster said.

“We don’t want to chase a small amount of money if it could have a major negative impact on tourism, the backbone of Bali’s economy.”

But on Sunday, the Viking Sun passengers were allowed to disembark at Benoa after a team from a local hospital checked all on board.

The cruise ship had been scheduled to dock in Bali for two days before moving to Lombok on its round-the-world journey.

In previous days the ship had been turned away from Surabaya in East Java and Semarang in Central Java, though the latter did allow the ship to pick up food.

Surabaya mayor Risma Rismaharini said he had received information there were two sick passengers with fever on board, while Semarang mayor Hendrar Prihadi said he was concerned the ship had docked in Australia where there were more than 70 confirmed cases of the virus. Indonesia confirmed its fourth case on Friday.

The refusals and delays by Indonesian port authorities disappointed the ship’s owner, Viking Cruises.

“We are extremely disappointed by the decision of the authorities to refuse entry of our vessel and the reasons we have been given are not based in fact and were not correct,” a Viking Cruises spokeswoman said.

Viking said since sailing began, the ship had been regularly checked by independent health regulators, including the health ­officials in Indonesia and there have been no identified cases of any guests or crew suffering from fevers, coughs or influenza-like symptoms. “While we respect the decision was made out of concern, we would reiterate that the decision was not rooted in fact,” the spokeswoman said.

She said the ship, which embarked from London on August 31 and was expected to cruise for 245 days, would skip the other Asian countries left on its itinerary.