The tourist has been quarantined in hospital as police surround the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Adeje to make sure no-one enters or leaves and hundreds of staff and guests are forced to undergo health checks
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Inside the locked down Tenerife hotel hit by coronavirus as masked guests fill lobby
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A Tenerife hotel with around 1,000 guests is on lockdown after an Italian tourist tested positive for coronavirus.
Hundreds of guests and staff have been forced to undergo health tests as police surround the four star H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Adeje to make sure no-one enters or leaves.
Dramatic footage from the scene shows crowds of people stood outside on the streets, their faces covered in masks.
A source told Mirror Online that around 50 of the guests on lockdown are British.
Video from inside shows guests and security officers wearing masks covering their noses and mouths although others – including children – appear to be walking around with no protection despite being in "quarantine".
A police cordon surrounds the hotel where several Brits are staying, with guests being told to stay in their rooms and complaining the only information they have is a note, slipped under their doors, telling them "for healthy (sic) reasons, the hotel has been closed down … you must remain in your rooms".
The doctor, from Italy’s Lombardy region, is believed to have been staying at the hotel for seven days with his wife and is Spain's third coronavirus case.
He went to a local health centre yesterday afternoon after having a fever for six days and has now been quarantined at Nuestra Señora de Candelaria University Hospital in Tenerife’s capital Santa Cruz.
The partner of the Italian doctor who tested positive for coronavirus in Tenerife is also in hospital and in isolation, according to sources. It is not yet known if she has been tested negative or positive.
Are you or a family member staying in the hotel? Email [email protected]
Inside the hotel placed under lockdown
(Image: via REUTERS)
The doctor was volunteering at a health centre on the island and asked to have tests done after suspecting he had the virus, according to El Mundo.
A British guest at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, who did not want to be named, told Sky News: "All we have been told is to stay in our rooms."
Another Brit said: "We've not been given any information other than a piece of paper under the door. We can't get through to reception."
A letter sent to guests reads: "We regret to inform you that for healthy (sic) reasons, the hotel has been closed down. Until the sanitary authorities warn, you must remain in your rooms."
Views from outside the hotel
(Image: Supplied)
Crowds of people outside the scene wearing masks
A Brit tourist video blogging from inside the hotel said they can't leave the hotel and has filmed himself describing the situation from the scene.
"Hello there, I'm Chris Betts from Leicestershire, United Kingdom.
"I'm staying at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel near La Caleta, in Tenerife.
"We're told we're in quarantine due to an Italian doctor testing for the coronavirus.
"The hotel seems to be acting normally, except that we cannot go out, either front or back.
"There are police cars stationed at all entrances, and at the side entrance."
Chris Betts from Leicestershire is at the hotel
(Image: Supplied)
He added there was "something like 60 employees, all standing around out, can't get in.
"They have been issued with face masks, but we're told the hotel hasn't got any for guests at this time.
"The staff are very, very friendly, they've done all they can to help us, we've had breakfast normally.
The Hotel H10 Costa Adeje Palace, where the Italian tourist who has tested positive for Coronavirus Covid-19 in Tenerife was staying, says it has implemented "all the sanitary and operational measures recommended" to "ensure the safety of its customers and employees".
Through a statement, the hotel chain says it is "working closely" with health authorities. In addition, it says it is giving the clients and hotel staff all the necessary attention and care so that, regardless of the possible inconvenience that this situation may cause them, they are cared for at all times.
Crowds outside the hotel that was put under quarantine
(Image: Ramón de la Rocha/EPA-EFE/REX)
Almost 80,000 people – most of them in China – have caught coronavirus and there are fears of a pandemic as Italy reported its seventh death and South Korea's cases doubled.
Britain now has 13 cases after confirming four new infections on Sunday.
Canary Islands president Angel Victor Torres confirmed on Monday night: “This afternoon the coronavirus protocol has been activated for an Italian tourist in the south of Tenerife.
“The result from the first test carried out in the Canaries is positive.
“Tomorrow new tests will take place in Madrid. The patient has been quarantined.”
A police car and officers at the scene
A spokesman for the regional health authority added: “The protocol states that a second test must take place at the National Microbiology Centre at the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid.
“The patient has been quarantined and is under the care of health workers.”
A spokeswoman for Canary Island's health department said: "We are checking people who had contact with the patient including the people in the hotel."
Spanish health authorities could not immediately confirm the lockdown but said hundreds of tourists and staff in the hotel were being tested for the virus.
A letter reportedly slipped under the doors of rooms where guests are staying
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A receptionist at the hotel earlier said there were 'no problems' at the hotel, adding: "Everything is under control. We are working normally here.”
Hotel leaders in Tenerife have issued a "keep calm" message.
Ashotel, the hotel employers' association, said in a press release: "Given the situation that about 1,000 people are in isolation in a hotel in the south of Tenerife, Ashotel points out several considerations."
"First of all, from Ashotel we call for calm and tranquility. We have a first level health service and the established protocols are underway and working."
A spokesman for the firm Jet2, which has its headquarters in Leeds and uses the hotel at the centre of the scare, said in a statement to the PA news agency: "We are aware of reports that a non-Jet2holidays customer staying at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife has tested positive for coronavirus.
"Under the advice of the regional and the Spanish government authorities, the hotel has been placed under quarantine.
"The health and safety of our customers is our absolute priority, and we will release more information as it becomes available.
"In line with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice, our flying programme remains unchanged."
An security guard at the hotel wearing a protective mask
The H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Adeje is extremely popular with British tourists at this time of the year. It's located next to the sea on the Costa Adeje and has direct access to La Enramada beach.
A German holidaymaker was quarantined in hospital in the Canary Island of La Gomera after testing positive.
He has now been allowed home, as has a 46-year-old British expat in Majorca who was hospitalised after picking up the killer bug.
The SARS-like coronavirus has spread to almost every continent and there are fears that it could arrive in South America during Rio's Carnival, which began on Saturday.
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.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that the official advice around 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.
People are seen wearing masks inside
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Mr Hancock added that people returning from any areas quarantined by the Italian government should self-isolate whether they show symptoms or not.
He said: "Yes, the official advice which will be formally updated at eight o'clock this morning is going to change so that those who have been to northern Italy – north of Pisa – if they have flu-like symptoms should self-isolate.
"If people have been to the affected areas that the Italian government have quarantined then they should self-isolate whether or not they have symptoms."
Any Britons who are still in lockdown regions of Italy should stay indoors and follow public health advice from Italian authorities, the Foreign Office has said.
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.
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.
He added: "In terms of going to Italy as a whole we haven't changed that travel advice.
"But we are clear that, if you come back from northern Italy and you have symptoms, then you should self-isolate."
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.
But Mr Hancock said the UK has done a "huge amount" of work preparing in case coronavirus became a pandemic, including setting up testing facilities outside A&Es and preparing home testing kits.
He added: "Since the outbreak became public at the start of this year, we have been doing a huge amount of work to prepare in case this becomes a pandemic.
"Once it gets to that point there isn't a way to stop it coming into the UK in a big way.
"It is not yet clear that it will become a pandemic – the number of cases in China has been slowing over the last couple of weeks and we are relatively confident that information is correct.
"Now there are more cases outside China, but at the moment if those countries get their response right and get the numbers coming down as China has then there still is the possibility this is a relatively small outbreak in the UK.
"We still expect more cases but at the moment there are 13 cases in the UK."
In the UK, 13 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 caused by the virus, including four over the weekend who had been on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was held in quarantine in Japan.
The four Britons from the cruise ship are being treated at specialist centres and were among a group of 30 Britons and two Irish citizens who arrived at a quarantine block at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside on Saturday.
Two of the patients are in the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, one is in the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and a fourth was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
China reported 508 new cases and another 71 deaths on Tuesday, 68 of them in the central city of Wuhan, where the epidemic was first detected in December.
The updates bring mainland China's totals to 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths, while South Korea now has the second highest number of cases in the world with 893 and eight deaths.
Covid-19 disease, caused by coronavirus, can cause a range of symptoms, including a fever, cough or sore throat.
Sourse: www.mirror.co.uk
