An Italian cruise ship with some 6,000 people stuck on board remained docked at the Italian port of Civitavecchia on Thursday as two Chinese passengers were tested for coronavirus.
Francesca Lynagh reports.
6,000 passengers stuck on cruise ship after coronavirus scare
6,000 people are stuck on board an Italian cruise ship, as coronavirus tests are carried out on a passenger from Macau.
According to a spokesman for the Costa Crociere cruise company, a 54-year-old woman arrived in Italy with her partner on January 25 and boarded the ship, the Costa Smeralda, in the port of Savona that same day.
She subsequently came down with a fever and flu-like symptoms, and both herself and her partner have been placed in an isolation unit about the ship.
The liner visited Marseilles in France, and the Spanish ports of Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca this week before docking on Thursday (January 30) at Civitavecchia, north of Rome.
No one is allowed off the ship while medical checks are carried out to see if the pair have the potentially deadly coronavirus, the company spokesman said.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the government was ready to take further steps if necessary.
Coronavirus - which originated from a live wild animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan - has killed 170 people so far.