A man wearing a mask stands at the Kai Tak cruise terminal as the World Dream cruise ship docked in Hong Kong on Feb 5, 2020. (PHILIP FONG / AFP)

HONG KONG - A cruise ship that previously had three passengers infected with the novel coronavirus was put under quarantine after arriving in Hong Kong on Wednesday morning.

The ship, World Dream, which is operated by Dream Cruises, currently has 1,800 passengers and another 1,800 crew. About 90 percent of the passengers are Hong Kong locals and the rest are foreigners. The ship has no passengers from the Chinese mainland, where the outbreak began.

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No one on board will be allowed to disembark without the permission of the Department of Health before the quarantine is completed, according to a port health officer

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Chief Port Health Officer Leung Yiu-hong said initial findings after the ship docked showed that about 30 crew members claimed to have had pneumonia-like symptoms, and three of them claimed to have had fever. The three were sent to public hospitals to be tested for the virus and be quarantined.

The Department of Health is conducting a quarantine inspection on the ship and collecting health declarations from everyone on board.

No one on board will be allowed to disembark without the permission of the Department of Health before the quarantine is completed, Leung said. The length of the quarantine has not been determined.

World Dream docked at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Hong Kong on Wednesday morning.

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Leung said that the passengers and crew now on board had no contact with the previous passengers, including the three confirmed patients, who boarded the ship in Nansha district in Guangzhou on Jan 19 and disembark on Jan 24.

The department was notified that the three passengers were confirmed positive for the virus after they disembarded in Guangzhou on Jan 24. 

According to the Genting Hong Kong, the cruise line’s parent company, about 4,400 passengers were on board at the time. About 4,000 got off on the mainland and 200 disembarked at Hong Kong.

With Reuters input