A crew member aboard the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas - a ship briefly detained after four passengers were tested for the coronavirus - has died.
The unidentified male crew member was not believed to have contracted the virus, however.
The Anthem of the Seas had docked in Bayonne, N.J. after reports of several Chinese passengers falling ill during a cruise through the Caribbean; four were tested for the coronavirus, and all were negative.
Despite reports that the crew member did not have the virus, authorities were nonetheless waiting for more test results.
NBC4NY reported the man was a Filipino national who was found in an engine room last weekend. His body was kept in a refrigerated compartment until the ship docked in New Jersey.
Approximately 35 crew members and nine passengers who had reported symptoms of the virus across several cruise lines have tested negative.
There are still three ships, however, with confirmed coronavirus infected passengers who are either docked or still at sea and not allowed to disembark passengers. Royal Caribbean is currently banning embarkation on any ship for holders of passports from China, Hong Kong or Macau.
According to Bloomberg News, the coronavirus has now killed more than 810 people, surpassing the death toll from the global outbreak of SARS in 2002.
In two months, there have been 37,000 cases of the coronavirus. SARS had 8,100 total cases and killed 774 people before it was under control.
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