The Italian port of Civitavecchia. Photo courtesy of Celina Schou from Pixabay
ROME, Jan 30 (NNN-ANSA) — Six thousand passengers on an Italian cruise ship are currently blocked at Civitavecchia after a Chinese woman came down with a fever raising fears she had contracted the new coronavirus.
Her husband did not present any symptoms, reported Italian news agency ANSA.
The couple, from Hong Kong, were tested by experts from Rome’s Spallanzani Hospital, which specialises in infectious diseases and viruses.
The woman is being held in isolation in a hospital ward aboard the Costa Crociere ship.
As well as a fever, she is also suffering respiratory problems, sources said.
The passengers have been ordered not to leave the ship.
The couple arrived in Italy at Milan’s Malpensa Airport on January 25. They boarded the ship at Savona earlier this week.
Costa Crociere said the situation on the vessel was under control.
Separately a Chinese man was taken to the Spallanzani after falling ill with a fever in a hotel in Via Cavour in central Rome Wednesday night.
Some 59 Italians in Wuhan, where the virus broke out, are being airlifted out later Thursday and will spend 14 days in quarantine at a military facility in Italy.
