Multiple news outlets report that a cruise ship – the Costa Smeralda – has been docked in the Civitavecchia port amid fears that a passenger on the ship may have the Coronavirus.
According to CNN International, “on Thursday, 7,000 people, including 1,000 crew, were confined to a cruise ship in a port near Rome as a couple was being tested for the virus. A spokesperson for Costa Cruises told CNN that a 54-year-old woman aboard the cruise ship was suffering from a fever and that she and her husband were both being tested. Italian news agency ANSA and public broadcaster RAI reported that the woman and her husband were from Hong Kong and were being kept separately in solitary confinement in the hospital section of the cruiseliner.”
More recent updates, however, show that the passengers were eventually allowed to disembark after the woman tested negative. The BBC reports, “six thousand people on board a cruise ship in Italy have been allowed to disembark after health officials said a Chinese passenger who had symptoms of coronavirus had tested negative.
The 54-year-old as well as her husband were held in isolation on the ship but tests confirmed she was not infected.”
The latest reports show over 7,800 people have contracted the virus, with 170 reported deaths, all of which have been in China. Cases have been reported in the United States, Australia, Japan, Thailand and many other countries. Globally, worries persist as many travelers, whether by cruise ship or through airlines, have spread across the world in the last few weeks making it difficult to get a handle on the spread of the virus.