The Costa Smeralda cruise ship docked in the Civitavecchia port 70km north of Rome
CIVITAVECCHIA (Italy), Jan 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Thousands of stranded tourists were free to disembark from a cruise ship at an Italian port after authorities said two Chinese passengers feared to have the coronavirus tested negative on Thursday.
Italy’s institute for infectious diseases examined samples taken from a Chinese woman ill with a fever, as well as her travelling companion, and both were negative for coronavirus, the health ministry said.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte however stopped all flights between Italy and China following the discovery that two Chinese tourists in a separate case had been confirmed as having the deadly SARS-like virus.
Over 6,000 tourists had spent around 12 hours in lockdown on the Costa Smeralda. Some of the 1,400 or so passengers due to permanently disembark in Civitavecchia began getting off late Thursday.
Some 1,000 new passengers were due to board in the port near Rome, and Costa Cruises said the liner would set sail again on Friday.
Costa Cruises said a 54-year old woman from Macau “was placed in solitary confinement in the on-board hospital last night with her travel companion”.
Some 750 other Chinese passengers were on board and all appear to be in good health.
The Smeralda, the company’s flagship and the fifth-largest cruise ship in the world, had sailed in from Palma de Mallorca as part of a one-week trip in the western Mediterranean.
The couple flew in to Milan from Hong Kong on Jan 25, before getting on board at Savona in northern Italy.
Silvio Brusaferro, president of the Italian national health institute, said that all suspected cases in Italy so far had turned out to be false alarms, but the health service was “ready should any cases of infection emerge”. — NNN-AGENCIES