The four Chinese passengers whose feared coronavirus infection has kept a Royal Caribbean cruise ship moored at a dock off Bayonne have all tested negative for the virus, New Jersey officials announced Saturday night.
“All four passengers from the cruise ship docked in Bayonne tested negative for novel coronavirus,” Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted.
“New Jersey currently has no confirmed cases of novel coronavirus and the risk to residents remains low.”
The four suspect passengers had been escorted off the Anthem of the Seas cruise liner by infectious disease experts from the Centers for Disease Control as soon as it docked on Friday.
But fears of a coronavirus outbreak onboard — sparked when one of the Chinese passengers contracted a fever — have proven ill-founded. The fever, which was caught by the three other passengers, turned out to be from the common flu, officials said.
The good news has come a bit late for thousands of passengers who’d expected to board the ship for its next trip, to the Bahamas, on Saturday.
The Anthem will remain at port until Monday, a schedule set by cautious cruise officials prior to Saturday night’s negative test results.
Updates on the delayed Anthem of the Seas cruise were being posted online by Royal Caribbean officials.