6,000 passengers stuck on cruise ship in Italy over coronavirus fears

More than 6,000 people have been prevented from disembarking from a cruise ship in the Italian port city of Civitavecchia after the liner was placed on lockdown over two suspected cases of the deadly coronavirus, reports The Guardian.

Samples from a couple onboard were sent for testing after three doctors and a nurse boarded the Costa Crociere ship Costa Smeralda to tend to a woman with a fever.

The 54-year-old woman from Macau was put into isolation overnight in a hospital ward on the ship. Her husband, who did not have any symptoms, has also been tested by doctors from Rome’s Spallanzani hospital and quarantined.