Italy has declared a state of emergency, for 6 months, following the confirmation that two Chinese tourists in Rome tested positive for the Coronavirus.

Italy has suspended all flights to and from China over fears of spreading the deadly Coronavirus, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.The two confirmed cases, two Chinese tourists, are a husband and wife aged 67 and 66, from Wuhon. They landed in Milan on 23 January and spent the last 10 days touring Italy, including a stop in Parma.

The pair have been isolated in Rome’s Spallanzani hospital, a specialist centre for treating infectious diseases, and their hotel room in the central Rome district of Monti, near the Roman Forum, has been sealed off by police.
Health authorities are now attempting to retrace the movements of the two tourists.

On 30 January almost 7,000 people were confined on a cruise ship at the port of Civitavecchia, north of Rome, after two suspected cases of Coronavirus were detected on board. However the tests on the two tourists from Hong Kong proved negative and passengers were allowed to disembark.