A cruise ship is in lock down in Sydney Harbour, passenger now being tested for possible coronavirus – The Australian

The Australian is reporting that a passenger aboard a cruise ship docked in Sydney Harbour is being tested for possible coronavirus. The Australian understands that NSW Health are assessing a Singaporean man who fell ill with a respiratory complaint.

The cruise ship arrived in Sydney this morning having believed to be at other Australian ports after travelling from New Zealand.

Market implications

This follows news from yesterday that there were nearly 50k new coronavirus cases in Hubei province, a surge of 45% amid new image scans, has seen the market revert to a risk-off tone which is weighing on NZD and AUD.

The latest figures in the Hubei province reported 242 new deaths and 14,840 new cases of the flu-like virus. That brings the worldwide death toll to at least 1,357 and the number of confirmed cases to more than 60,000. The lift in cases was driven by a change in the way the disease is being diagnosed meaning a lift in both cases and deaths attributed to the disease. This created uncertainty and stemmed previous optimism that the disease may be peaking.

There is no reaction in AUD so far, sat at 0.6712, but heavy since falling from 0.6740s overnight