An Italian cruise ship with 7,000 people on board is being held off the coast after a Chinese woman fell ill with a suspected case of coronavirus.
The Costa Smeralda vessel is currently being held in port at Civitavecchia, 35 miles north of Rome after a 54-year-old woman from Macau came down with a fever.
She and her husband, who is not thought to have symptoms, were immediately placed in solitary confinement and have been tested for the virus.
The woman, who has not been identified, contacted medics on board on Wednesday night to say she had a temperature and was suffering respiratory problems, Corriere Della Sera reports.
The couple has been placed in separate isolated rooms in the ship’s medical bay, Repubblica reports.
Test results are due this afternoon, with other passengers barred from leaving the ship until they come back.
The ship is believed to be carrying around 6,000 passengers, along with another 1,000 crew members.
Of those, 751 are thought to be Chinese, of which 374 embarked in Savona.
