A US CRUISE company is attempting to track down hundreds of passengers who disembarked a liner in Cambodia after one was later diagnosed with Covid-19.

The Westerdam was at sea for two weeks when it was barred from Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand over fears it could be carrying the virus, which has also been dubbed the ‘coronavirus’.

Cambodia allowed the ship to dock on its southern coast on Thursday, when authorities carried out temperature checks on passengers before they left the ship to fly home.

But one traveller was stopped late on Saturday after arriving in Malaysia, where airport staff detected a fever. She was later diagnosed with the coronavirus.

The 83-year-old American woman is under observation at a hospital while her husband is also being monitored.

137 passengers from the Westerdam who also took the Malaysia flight with the US citizen have now left on commercial flights for other destinations.

Meanwhile, over a dozen people tested positive for the virus after they were evacuated by plane from a second ship quarantined off the coast of Japan.

More than 300 US citizens and family members had disembarked from the Diamond Princess and were preparing to return home on a chartered aircraft when officials were informed that 14 of them had tested positive for the illness.

“These individuals were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialised containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols,” a statement said.

“During the flights, these individuals will continue to be isolated from the other passengers.”

The first flight is due to land shortly at a US Air Force base in California, where all passengers will undergo 14 days quarantine.

Mainland China, where the coronavirus originated, has reported a slight upturn in new cases and the death toll from the virus in the country has now risen to 1,770 people.

However, 10,844 had recovered the disease in the country and had been discharged from hospitals, authorities said.

The new figures came as the Chinese military sent 1,200 more medical workers and extra supplies to the city hit hardest by the outbreak, Wuhan.

On Saturday, France’s health minister confirmed that an 80-year-old Chinese tourist had died from the virus, the first such death in Europe.

With reporting from Press Association.