Overview
- Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection boarded Holland America’s Westerdam on March 1, finding 65 passengers and 11 crew with acute gastroenteritis among about 2,800 people on board.
- Shipboard lab testing reported seven stool samples positive for norovirus, with authorities indicating additional testing and surveillance would follow.
- Officials inspected the vessel, issued infection-control guidance including thorough disinfection, and allowed healthy passengers and crew to disembark before approving embarkation of new travelers.
- Holland America said most illnesses were mild and resolving and reported enhanced sanitation and deep cleaning in Hong Kong before the ship departed for the Philippines.
- The voyage included calls at Yokohama, Busan, and Shanghai, with authorities noting the first two ill passengers boarded in Japan on February 15, and the episode follows a separate December–January norovirus outbreak on the line’s Rotterdam reported by the CDC.