About 5,023 passengers and 1,628 crew aboard Costa Cruises’ Costa Smeralda ship were being held in an Italian port after a passenger from Macau, China, came down with flu-like symptoms on Wednesday night amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
A Costa Cruises spokesperson confirmed to Fox News on Thursday that sanitary protocol has been activated after a 54-year-old woman fell ill aboard the Smeralda ship, which had sailed from Mallorca, Spain, to Civitavecchia on a weeklong Mediterranean cruise.
The spokesperson said that the sick passenger was placed in isolation in the ship’s hospital last night along with her travel companion, amid concerns that she may be infected with the deadly coronavirus during the global outbreak. The woman’s companion has no symptoms, The Associated Press reports
#CostaCivitavecchia pic.twitter.com/fXkvkZPiW6
— Filippo🇮🇹 (@Filippo64416163) January 30, 2020
As of Thursday morning, Smeralda passengers are being kept on board, pending checks, to determine the type of virus. According to The Telegraph, if the woman indeed has the coronavirus, passengers and crew could be quarantined for two weeks aboard the ship. – READ MORE