Civitavecchia (Italy) (AFP)
Some 7,000 people, including about 6,000 passengers, have been stranded since Thursday morning in Civitavecchia, near Rome, on a cruise ship arriving from Palma de Mallorca, due to two suspected cases of the new coronavirus.
"We were alerted early in the morning by the Ministry of Health and sent three doctors and a nurse on board to take samples," a spokesperson for the ASL (health center) in Civitavecchia told AFP. . The spokesman for Costa Cruises confirmed to AFP "that there are about 6,000 passengers on board", the others being crew members.
"My son and my two grandchildren are on board and they knew absolutely nothing. We were the one who told them around 11:00 am" (10:00 GMT), Adriano Pavan told AFP Harbor.
"On board everything is normal, there is nothing to worry about. He (the son, editor's note) told us that for two or three days these Chinese, a couple, have been traveling with masks. In Rome, there are tons of people walking around in masks, "he added, assuring that family members aboard the ship are" very quiet. "
The samples will be analyzed at the Spallanzani hospital in Rome, specializing in infectious diseases, said the ASL spokesperson. The results should be known later today.
The Costa Smeralda doctor on board, the flagship - and one of the five largest in the world - of Costa Cruises, reported early Thursday to the Italian port authorities the presence on board of a Chinese couple whose wife had suspicious symptoms of cough and high fever.
Costa Cruises confirmed in a press release that it "activated the health protocol for a suspicious case, concerning a tourist from Macau, on board the Costa Smeralda". The 54-year-old woman was "placed in solitary confinement" in the ship's infirmary along with her partner, according to Costa.
The couple arrived in Milan on January 25 from Hong Kong and then embarked in Savona (Italy) and would have stopped in Barcelona, Valencia (Spain) and Marseille (France), according to Italian media.
The Costa Smeralda arrived in Civitavecchia from Palma de Mallorca (Spain) on Thursday morning "as part of a week-long cruise in the western Mediterranean", according to Costa.
The ship should have left Thursday evening for La Spezia, on the northwest coast of Italy.
- "No cause for concern" -
According to a passenger interviewed by the Italian agency Ansa, "the couple was put in solitary confinement in their cabin, with the assistance of doctors".
"We are a little worried, of course. No one is getting on or off the boat except the doctors. Our vacation may end in a nightmare," said the passenger.
According to Ansa, 751 Chinese tourists are on the ship including the couple.
The head of the Civitavecchia port and commander of the region's coast guard, Vincenzo Leone, said that "the situation on board is calm".
"We are waiting to know the results of the checks still in progress, but everything that needs to be done has been done," he added, saying that "there are no grounds for concern".
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told Italian media from Sofia that he was "being informed to, if necessary, step up precautionary measures if necessary".
However, he called "not to spread alarmism or to fuel a form of panic" because the Italian authorities "are taking all necessary initiatives to deal with the risks linked to the coronavirus".
"So far, all the (suspected) cases analyzed have given negative results. The system (Italian sanitary, editor's note) is ready if there were any case of contagion to the new coronavirus", stressed to the press on Thursday Silvio Brusaferro, President of the Higher Institute of Health.
© 2020 AFP