ROME, 30 one (Reuters) - Some 6,000 people were detained aboard an Italian cruise ship while tests were carried out on two Chinese passengers suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, a spokesperson for the Costa Crociere cruise company reported on Thursday.
The couple arrived in Italy on January 25, embarking that same day on the Costa Smeralda cruise ship in the port of Savona. Subsequently, their fever began to rise and they had difficulty breathing.
The liner visited the French city of Marseille and the Spanish ports of Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca this week before docking on Thursday in Civitavecchia, north of Rome.
No one has been allowed to leave the ship while medical checks are carried out to check whether the couple is carrying the potentially deadly coronavirus, the company spokesperson said.
He also reported that it could take "a few hours" before the situation becomes clearer.
On Thursday, several countries began isolating hundreds of citizens evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which has already killed 170 people.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; edited by Gareth Jones; translated by Darío Fernández in the Gdansk editorial office)
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