Cruise ship is turned away from Mexico

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Caribbean cruise ship carrying a Dallas health care worker is heading back to Texas — after being refused permission to dock in Cozumel, Mexico.

The passenger had handled a lab specimen from the Liberian man who died from Ebola in Dallas. And she’s being monitored for signs of the disease. But officials say she poses no risk, because she has shown no signs of illness for 19 days. She’s voluntarily self-quarantined on the cruise ship, the Carnival Magic.

Yesterday, officials in Belize refused to let the passenger leave the ship. And the government of Belize said it had refused a U.S. government request to fly the woman home through the Belize City airport.

Carnival says the ship left Cozumel waters at midday with the goal of returning to its home port of Galveston Sunday morning as originally scheduled.

Passengers will get a $200 credit in their ship accounts, and a 50 percent discount for future cruises, because they weren’t able to go ashore in Cozumel.

%@AP Links

169-c-21-(Rita Foley, AP correspondent)-“board its ships”-AP correspondent Rita Foley reports on what Carnival Cruise Lines is saying about the passenger. (17 Oct 2014)

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