Possible virus case traps 7,000 on cruise ship

ROME: A cruise ship owned by

Carnival Corp

. was blocked from leaving an Italian port with some 7,000 people on board, after a passenger came down with symptoms that raised concerns about a possible case of coronavirus.


The ship was bound for La Spezia in the Liguria region, with 1,000 crew and 6,000 passengers, 750 of whom came from China, a port spokesman said Carnival’s Italian unit

Costa Crociere SpA

said that a 54-year-old woman from Macau is currently in isolation on board its Costa Smeralda cruise ship in the port of

Civitavecchia

, near Rome. A medical team from a Rome hospital has examined the patient, who demonstrated fever and respiratory symptoms, according to the

Italian Coast Guard

. The Costa Smeralda case could mark the first case of a cruise ship being affected by the coronavirus. It would also be the first confirmed case of the disease in Italy.

Italian media reported that passengers were protesting the lockdown. “We don’t have information, no internet, because on the ship it doesn’t work,” Ansa new agency cited a passenger as saying. “But above all we’re having our meals together in the common areas and we don’t know if someone is infected.”