ARCHIVED - 1,000 in coronavirus quarantine in Tenerife hotel

Tourists stranded for two weeks after an Italian doctor tested positive for the virus

Alarm over the coronavirus continues to escalate throughout Spain and in Tenerife, where a third case of the virus was confirmed at the weekend, over a thousand people have effectively been placed in quarantine in the hotel where one of their fellow holidaymakers was, until Monday, the Italian doctor whose tests proved positive on Sunday.

The doctor himself is in isolated care in the Hospital de la Candelaria in the south of Tenerife while at the Costa Adeje Palace security guards are on duty ensuring that none of the guests or staff is allowed to leave the premises, where it is anticipated they will be kept for another two weeks. The doctor reported to the Quironsalud Costa Adeje hospital at around 13.00 on Sunday, and although the results of a second test are still being awaited the first analysis showed the presence of coronavirus antibodies in his blood.

The next step, according to the authorities in the Canaries, is that the condition of those remaining in the hotel, including the doctor’s wife, will be monitored exhaustively, especially their body temperature.

This third confirmed case of the coronavirus in Spain follows those found in a German national in La Gomera, also in the Canaries, and a Briton resident in Mallorca, both of whom were infected outside Spain and have recovered fully.

At present there are no plans in Spain for those arriving from areas of high risk elsewhere in the world to be subjected to medical examinations, although the national Ministry of Health has convened a meeting with regional health authority representatives on Tuesday to discuss possible additional preventative measures. At the same time, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is presiding over an inter-ministerial committee meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss the situation in this country.

It should be remembered that the World Health Organization remains on maximum alert due to the coronavirus, and on Monday WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that COVID-19 has “pandemic potential”, but is “not yet there”. On the one hand this is good news, of course, but on the other hand the use of the word “yet” indicates that there can be no certainty that the epidemic will die out as quickly as the SARS outbreak of 2003.

After the latest data showed that there had been over 2,000 cases of coronavirus and 28 deaths outside China – possibly more, if some reports from Iran are to be believed – the WHO leader stated that "our decision about whether to use the word 'pandemic' to describe an epidemic is based on an ongoing assessment of the geographical spread of the virus, the severity of disease it causes and the impact it has on the whole of society."

"For the moment, we are not witnessing the uncontained global spread of this virus, and we are not witnessing large-scale severe disease or death," he continued. "Using the word pandemic now does not fit the facts, but it may certainly cause fear."

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