Coronavirus: Some 1,000 tourists on lockdown after Canary Islands hotel quarantined

MADRID —  A tourist hotel on the Canary Island of Tenerife was placed in quarantine Tuesday after an Italian doctor staying there tested positive for the new virus from China that has infected thousands worldwide.

The press office for the town of Adeje said Tuesday that the H10 Adeje Palace hotel was in quarantine.

Spanish news media reported that some 1,000 tourists staying at the complex are not allowed to leave.

The Canary Islands, an archipelago located some 62 miles west of the African coast, is a popular vacation destination that attracts many northern Europeans.

The Italian doctor has been quarantined in a local clinic while samples are analyzed in a hospital near Madrid to confirm the initial diagnosis, the archipelago’s President Ángel Víctor Torres announced late Monday in a series of tweets.

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Spanish private news agency Europa Press, citing the regional government’s health department, said the tourist had arrived from one of the areas in northern Italy where a cluster of the coronavirus has infected hundreds. The patient voluntarily went to a clinic in Tenerife on Monday when he began feeling unwell, Europa Press reported.

It’s Spain’s third case of COVID-19 and the second in the islands. A German tourist was quarantined earlier this month in the island of La Gomera and a British citizen in the Mediterranean’s Balearic Islands. Both were released after recovering and showing no further symptoms.

The Spanish government has convened a special commission of various ministries Tuesday and a separate meeting with health authorities of all the Spanish regions to assess preparations for a possible uptick in cases.