Crew of Maersk ship tests positive

2020-03-30 chinadaily.com.cn Editor：Mo Hong'e

Crew members of the container ship Gjertrud Maersk have tested positive for coronavirus and are being treated in a hospital in Ningbo, a port city in Zhejiang province, a statement from China's Ministry of Transport said on Monday afternoon.

Maersk is the world's largest ocean shipping company.

The Danish ship, with 22 foreign crew members, arrived at Ningbo on March 17. Seven crew members were found to have "abnormal physical condition" on March 20.

The seven left the ship on Thursday, with the other 15 remaining aboard under medical observation.

So far, of the seven, one has been diagnosed with the virus, four have tested positive for the infection but have no symptoms and the remaining two were declared negative. Multiple tests were conducted.

The Ministry of Transport is currently studying issues such as crew replacement to comply with the safety orders of international marine cargo line, the announcement said.

Ningbo's Zhoushan port, China's busiest, saw cargo throughput exceed 1.1 billion metric tons last year, making the port the only one in the world to reach such volume, according to the port's shipping management center.

The container throughput at the port surpassed 27.53 million standard containers last year, ranking third in the world.