Tenerife hotel with over 1,000 guests under coronavirus lockdown

25 February 2020, 16:14 | Updated: 26 February 2020, 09:21

A popular hotel on Tenerife with over 1,000 guests is under lockdown after a person tested positive for coronavirus.

Guests are being kept inside the Costa Adeje Palace on the south of the Island.

Some holidaymakers who had their flights delayed due to a massive sandstorm which hit Tenerife are understood to have been put up in the hotel while they awaited alternative travel home.

It was reported that the person who tested positive for the disease is an Italian doctor.

The doctor has been taken to University Hospital Nuestra Señora de Candelaria on the island.

He had been staying with his wife for a week at the resort, according to local reports.

All customers have been banned from entering or leaving the complex.

The regional president of the Canary Islands tweeted last night: "In the afternoon / evening protocol was activated over suspected coronavirus in an Italian citizen in the south of Tenerife.

"Initial tests carried out in the Canary Islands proved positive: tomorrow they will be done again in Madrid. The patient is isolated and protocol activated."

Guests have been told to stay in their rooms and tell staff by telephone if they feel unwell.

The doctor's is the third case of coronavirus in Spain. Two other patients have been given the all-clear.

Earlier today Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the official advice for coronavirus is being updated so that people returning to the UK from anywhere in northern Italy should self-isolate if they have flu-like symptoms.

Anyone from within quarantine zones in Italy should self-isolate whether they have symptoms or not, Mr Hancock said.

In Italy, where 229 people have tested positive for the virus and seven have died, police have manned checkpoints around a dozen quarantined northern towns.

Schools were closed, theatre performances cancelled, and Venice Carnival celebrations were called off, while producers said filming on the latest Mission: Impossible movie starring Tom Cruise has been halted.

Mr Hancock said the Government was not aware of any Britons who were in the quarantined areas of northern Italy, but he urged anyone there to make contact with the embassy in Rome.

The minister added that there were no changes to travel advice about going to Italy but those returning and showing symptoms should self-isolate.

The updated advice said people returning from Iran, lockdown areas of northern Italy, special care zones in South Korea, and Hubei province in China since February 19 should call NHS 111, stay indoors and avoid contact with other people even if they do not have symptoms.

People returning from north of Pisa and Florence in Italy, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Burma (Myanmar) from the same date who develop symptoms should stay at home, avoid contact with other people and also call NHS 111.

The new travel advice comes as World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus warned that, while the spread of the virus around the world is not yet at pandemic stage, it has the potential to become one.