No stopping of cruise ships’ arrival in Subic amid coronavirus alert

Luxury cruise ship World Dream docks at Alava Wharf in Subic Bay Freeport. It carried foreign tourists, some were Chinese, when it visited the Port of Subic last month. (Contributed )

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT –– There is no hampering the arrival here of luxury cruise ships, some carrying Chinese tourists, despite a heightened alert raised by the Department of Health following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China, an official here said.

Lawyer Wilma Eisma, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) administrator, said there have been no changes in the schedule of cruise ships coming here.

Eisma earlier said there were 38 confirmed cruise ship arrivals here this year.

“One cruise ship that is supposedly coming on Feb. 8 has been canceled but not because of the virus,” Eisma told the Inquirer in a telephone
interview on Thursday.

Eisma said the Port of Subic has received a memorandum from the Bureau of Quarantine about the DOH’s heightened alert for the viral pneumonia.

The SBMA head has also issued a public and health safety bulletin to the agency’s departments.

“Procedures [on the arrival of cruise ships] will remain the same but we will be more vigilant this time,” Eisma said./lzb