ROME, March 24. /TASS/. Eighty-five Russians are among 1,500 passengers and crew members onboard Costa Victoria cruise ship where a tourist had been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, the ship’s owner, Costa Crociere told TASS.
The tourist from Argentina disembarked on March 22 on Greece’s island of Crete and was rushed to hospital.
The company vowed that all sanitary measures had been carried out, including isolating people who had contacted with the coronavirus patient. At the moment, no other suspected coronavirus cases have been confirmed, but all passengers have been ordered not to leave their cabins. "A total of 85 Russians are onboard," the company said.
The cruise ship was scheduled to arrive in the ports of Venice or Trieste on March 28. However, local authorities banned entry for the ship. Now there are plans to disembark passengers in one of the ports of Italy’s Tyrrhenian coast. Some national airlines, including Russia’s Aeroflot, continue performing flights. The company also noted that Costa Crociere suspended all its cruises until April 30.
Earlier, Italy’s authorities introduced a 14-day quarantine for foreign passengers of another cruise ship, Costa Luminosa, which has by now completed the effort to disembark tourists in the port of Savona. Fourteen Russians (13 passengers and one crew member) were sent to Rome with the assistance of Russia’s consulate general in Genoa and were accommodated in a hotel during the quarantine. The Russians have not shown any coronavirus symptoms.