Suspected coronavirus leaves 6,000 passengers stranded on cruise

A cruise with 6,000 people on board is being held at the port of Civitavecchia in central Italy , while two Chinese passengers are tested for suspected coronavirus , a spokesman for Costa Cruises said on Thursday.

The Chinese couple arrived in Italy on January 25 and, on the same day, boarded the ship Costa Smeralda, in the port of Savona. Then, the two passengers felt ill, with fever and breathing difficulties.

The cruise had already visited Marseille, France, and the Spanish ports of Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca this week before docking at Civitavecchia, north of Rome, this Thursday.

No one is allowed to disembark while medical examinations are being carried out to assess whether the couple has the coronavirus, a spokesman for the shipping company said. He added that the situation could take “a few hours” before it is cleared up.

On Thursday, some countries began to isolate thousands of citizens who left the Chinese city of Wuhan, a measure to prevent the spread of the virus, which has already killed 170 people in China.