Wuhan virus impacting cruise ships, airlines, car manufacturers
Wuhan virus impacting cruise ships, airlines, car manufacturers

BEIJING — As the Wuhan virus continues to spread at an alarming rate, it is starting to impact cruise ships, airlines and other international companies.

Two cruise ships traveling in Asia have been forced to quarantine thousands of passengers.

One of the ships is anchored off of Japan while the other is in Hong Kong, Reuters reports.

According to Bloomberg, Japanese health workers said 61 passengers on one of the ships were found to test positive for the novel coronavirus.

Air travel has been disrupted, with more than 73 airlines around the world either suspending or restricting flights to China, as reported by Business Insider.

This includes airlines such as Japan Airlines, Air Canada, Air France, Cathay Pacific and American Airlines.

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific has gone a step further and asked staff members to take three weeks of unpaid leave to cope with the impact of the Wuhan virus.

The company says that it plans to cut roughly 90 percent of its flights to China over the next two months, BBC News reports.

Global car manufacturing firms have been forced to shut down factories for an extended amount of time in China following the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Car companies that have closed down their Chinese factories include Hyundai, Tesla, Ford and Nissan among others.

Airbus SE is halting one of its assembly lines in China, while Boeing and French company Safran SA are both closing plane making facilities in China in order to minimize workers' exposure to the virus, Bloomberg reports.

The coronavirus has already spread to 28 countries and regions outside of China.

More than 31,000 people in China have been affected with the virus so far.

The virus has caused 636 deaths in China, with two additional deaths from the virus in the Philippines and in Hong Kong.

The World Health Organization had declared the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency at the end of last month.

Symptoms of the coronavirus include severe coughing, fever and shortness of breath.

Complications from the virus can lead to pneumonia.