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Coronavirus: Canary Islands hotel locked down after Italian tests positive

Rebecca Lunt, who is staying at the hotel, told NBC News via Facebook Messenger that guests were not being allowed to leave.
Image: A Spanish police officer sets a barrier blocking the access to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
A Spanish police officer sets a barrier blocking access to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife on the Canary Islands on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020.AP

A hotel on Spain's Canary Islands was put on lockdown Tuesday after an Italian guest tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to The Associated Press and another guest.

Ángel Víctor Torres tweeted late Monday that an Italian citizen had tested positive for the coronavirus that has killed more than 2,600 people in China and spread to dozens of countries.

"The result of the first tests carried out in the Canary Islands is positive, and tomorrow they will be done again in Madrid," Torres said, adding that the patient had been placed in isolation.

Later Tuesday, Torres said the wife of the guest who initially tested positive had also been infected.

According to the AP, the press office for the town of Adeje, a municipality on Tenerife where the hotel is located, also said Tuesday that H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, was under quarantine.

The hotel, its parent chain and the town hall did not respond to requests for comment.

One of the hotel guests, Rebecca Lunt, told NBC News via Facebook Messenger that guests were not allowed to leave but that the hotel's restaurant was still open.

Lund said guests received a note under their doors Tuesday in English, Spanish, French and Italian. She said on social media that it said the hotel had been closed down "for healthy [sic] reasons."

"Until the sanitary authorities warn, you must remain in your rooms," the note said.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Lund said police were outside the hotel. Photos from outside the H10 Costa Adeje Palace showed police wearing masks, erecting barricades and blocking access to the hotel.

Spain's El País newspaper reported that health checks were being carried out on people who may have had contact with the infected guest.

In the wake of the diagnosis, the Health Ministry has convened an urgent meeting to discuss the situation around COVID-19 on the islands.

Image: Map showing the Canary Islands
Google

Spain has had two confirmed cases of the coronavirus so far, both involving foreign nationals, according to the country's health officials.

A British man tested positive on the island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean Sea on Feb. 9, and a German man was confirmed to have the virus on the Canary Island of La Gomera on Feb. 1.

The Canary Islands, an autonomous region of Spain 60 miles west of the African coast, are a popular vacation destination that attracts many Europeans.

Britain's Foreign Office told NBC News on Tuesday that it was offering advice and support to a number of British nationals and their families in a hotel in Tenerife.

"We are in close contact with the hotel management and the Spanish authorities," a spokesperson for the Foreign Office said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.