Cruise Ship Carrying Ebola-Risk Passenger Heads Home Early After Mexico Denies Port Entry Jim Kuhnhenn - The Associated Press
go to original October 17, 2014

Health Care Worker Aboard Cruise Ship Monitored For Ebola Symptoms (WochitGeneralNews)

USA Today Update: The health care worker who was being monitored for signs of Ebola aboard a Carnival Cruise Lines ship passed a blood test and was allowed to leave with other passengers when the ship docked Sunday in Texas, health officials said.

Carnival Cruise Lines issued a statement shortly before noon Dallas time Friday that the ship Carnival Magic was returning to Galveston after failing to receive clearance from Mexican authorities to dock in the port of Cozumel.

The U.S. State Department had announced early Friday morning that one of the passengers aboard the ship was a Dallas health care worker who may have handled a lab specimen from a Liberian man who died from Ebola. Offiicals said the woman had self-quarantined aboard the ship after learing of stricter CDC monitoring guidelines and was being monitored for infection.

Carnival said in its statement that passengers would be credited $200 each to their shipboard accounts and would receieve a 50 percent discount applicable to a future cruise based on the missed visit to Cozumel.

The ship had previously stopped in Belize, but officials there would not allow the passenger to leave the vessel. In a statement, the Belize government said it had refused a U.S. government request to fly the woman home through the Belize City airport.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement Friday that the woman had shown no signs of the disease and has been asymptomatic for 19 days.

Read the rest at Dallas News

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