Spain's Tenerife hotel under lockdown after suspected coronavirus case

Hundreds of guests at Tenerife Hotel in Spain have been confined only to their rooms after an Italian tourist was hospitalised with a suspected case of deadly coronavirus. According to an international news agency, health authority spokesperson, Veronica Martin said that the tourists are being monitored for health reasons but she also added that they are “not talking about quarantine”. Martin also confirmed that the Italian tourist who might be a case of Covid-19 was staying at the hotel while on a holiday. 

According to media reports, the guests at  H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel were initially asked to stay in their rooms as medical tests were carried out where the Italian man was staying. But now, the hotel with 467 rooms, four outdoor pools, and two jacuzzis has been put under lockdown. The unprecedented detection of the suspected case came as the hotels across the Canary Islands were packed with tourists who had flown in for the traditional carnival festivities in February. So far, Spain has reported two cases of coronavirus, both in foreign tourists. The first confirmed case was that of a German man on La Gomera island in the Canaries and then followed by a British man who tested positive in Mallorca in the Balearic Islands. 

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Death toll surpasses 2,600 in China

Meanwhile, the death toll in China surpassed 2,600 and the National Health Commission reportedly confirmed 508 new cases. The total number of confirmed cases within China also hit nearly 77,000. First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread across more than 25 countries since December 2019 and more than 1,700 people have recovered from the disease and nearly 12,500 coronavirus patients have by now been reportedly discharged from hospitals.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also claimed that the biggest fear for the organisation is that the virus will continue to spread to other countries and especially those with weaker health systems. Furthermore, the organisation has also called on the world to pledge $675 million in support of the most vulnerable countries. 

Consequently, China's President Xi Jinping reportedly said that the epidemic is communist China's 'largest public health emergency' since its founding in 1949. Jinping further called the outbreak a 'crisis' and said that the epidemic has the 'fastest transmission' and the widest range of infection which has been the most difficult to prevent and control. 

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(With agency inputs)