MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) – Two cruise ship passengers were being tested for the coronavirus in the French Mediterranean city of Marseille on Tuesday after they fell ill with flu-like symptoms, the local health authority said.
The remaining passengers were being kept on board the German-owned AIDAsol, which was being held off the city’s shores, Marseille port officials said.
The 253-metre long AIDAsol is operated by AIDA Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp., and can carry more than 2,000 passengers.
It arrived in Marseille from Spain. The vessel tracking website MarineTraffic showed it anchored about 3 km outside the port of Marseille.
The coronavirus outbreak has impacted the cruise ship industry hard. The Grand Princess docked in Oakland on Monday after being held off California’s shores for several days. Several people died after a coronavirus outbreak on another ship, the Diamond Princess, that had been quarantined off Japan in February.
(Reporting by Marc Leras; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Richard Lough and Alison Williams)
