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At Spanish Hotel Under Coronavirus Lockdown, Meals With Masks
At Spanish Hotel Under Coronavirus Lockdown, Meals With Masks
(about 7 hours later)
TENERIFE, Spain — At a tourist resort on a Spanish island where hundreds of hotel guests remained on lockdown on Wednesday to contain the spread of the coronavirus, some had breakfast and lunch while wearing masks, then quickly repaired to their rooms.
ADEJE, Spain — Hundreds of guests at a resort on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, were told Wednesday that they would be confined to their hotel for 14 days as the authorities tried to prevent the coronavirus from spreading after infections were discovered there this week.
A few guests floated around wearing masks in virtually empty corridors and common areas, videos from inside the hotel, the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel on Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, showed.
News of a quarantine at the resort, the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, came as officials in Europe scrambled to contain an outbreak that has spread to at least seven nations on the Continent. Spain, of which the Canary Islands are a part, disclosed additional infections on Wednesday, and France reported its second death.
“There’s almost no one,” said Silke Bal, 17, a guest from Belgium, as she walked around the hotel. “Everything is closed.”
The Costa Adeje Palace, a four-star resort with a restaurant, pools and over 450 rooms, is one of at least two hotels to be locked down in Europe. Officials in Innsbruck, an Austrian ski town, sealed off a 108-room hotel after an employee tested positive for the virus.
The lockdown remained firmly in place for most guests as the Spanish authorities announced on Wednesday that three more people had tested positive for the coronavirus, and officials in Europe scrambled to contain an outbreak that had spread to five nations on the Continent. France on Wednesday reported its second death from the coronavirus.
In Adeje, officials said 723 people from 25 countries were staying at the Costa Adeje Palace. Guests wearing masks wandered near the pool and around the restaurant on Wednesday, with the hotel providing a supply of sparkling wine, videos posted to social media showed.
For the first time, more new cases have been reported outside China than inside, according to the World Health Organization’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The number of new cases reported in China on Tuesday was 411; elsewhere, the total was 427. The number of cases globally has now reached 80,980, and nearly 3,000 of those have died.
That guests were allowed to mingle and share common areas — “you can move around the hotel freely” one message to them said — raised concern among some that the conditions could allow the virus to spread.
The European Union’s top official for communicable diseases also warned that the Continent needed to prepare for a large-scale pandemic, as Italy struggled to bring a cluster of cases in the north of the country under control.
“Why would you want to sit in a room full of people who could contaminate you?” Stephanie Hannay said in a video shared on Instagram, as she filmed the restaurant brimming with guests and staff.
Dr. Andrea Ammon, the director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said at a news conference in Rome on Wednesday, “We will likely see a similar situation in other countries in Europe.”
Staff members have also been allowed to leave the grounds, as long as they did not show any symptoms, said Teresa Cruz, a regional health official.
The European Union’s health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, said she had asked all member countries to send her details about their pandemic preparedness, including how they planned to trace people who had been in contact with someone infected.
The coronavirus was first discovered at the hotel on Monday, when an Italian doctor who had been on the island for a week fell ill with a fever and checked into a hospital. His partner tested positive on Tuesday, health officials said.
“We have requested member states to review their pandemic plans as well as health care capabilities,” Ms. Kyriakides said in Rome on Wednesday, “including capacity for diagnosing, laboratory testing and procedures for contact tracing.”
Updated Feb. 26, 2020
Updated Feb. 26, 2020
That European push came as Spanish officials announced on Wednesday that one person each in Madrid, Catalonia and Seville had tested positive for the virus, bringing the country’s total to 12.
The couple were part of a group of 10 people traveling together, officials said, two of whom have also tested positive for coronavirus. Ms. Cruz said all four had been hospitalized and were “in good health.”
The first two people had recently arrived from Italy, which has seen an eruption of the most cases in Europe: more than 300. Italy’s Lombardy region has been hit especially hard by the outbreak. Cases that appear to be connected to Lombardy have also been reported in France, Austria, Croatia and Switzerland.
Health officials are now awaiting the results of tests given to all of the guests at the Costa Adeje Palace, she said. Eleven have presented some symptoms.
A man in his 60s also tested positive in Spain’s southern region of Andalusia and was placed in isolation. But he had not recently visited Italy, and the authorities were trying to establish if he might have been infected by somebody who had recently traveled outside Spain.
About 100 guests who arrived at the hotel after the initial cases were diagnosed were expected to receive a quicker clearance to leave.
Enrique Ruíz Escudero, an official with the regional government of Madrid, the Spanish capital, said the two young people who had recently been to Italy had been transferred to hospitals and placed in isolation. Officials described their condition as “good.”
Harriet Strandvik, a guest from Finland, said she was trying to get used to being confined for two weeks in the resort. There were some bright spots, she said, but also some reasons for worry.
All of this week’s cases in Spain still had to be confirmed by a second round of testing, which will be done in Spain’s national center of microbiology.
“We enjoy the sun, books, play cards together, and are longing for our dog back home,” Ms. Strandvik wrote in a message. “It seems a bit disorganized here. Very little information.”
Across Europe, in addition to the people at the hotel in the Canary Islands, guests at hotels in Austria and France were placed in lockdown this week after others either tested positive for the virus or were suspected of having it.
The European Union’s health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, said Wednesday that she has asked all member countries to send her details about their preparedness, including how they planned to trace people who had been in contact with someone infected.
On Wednesday, there were two types of visitors in the coastal town of Adeje, in southwest Tenerife: those who remained essentially sealed in their hotel because of the coronavirus and those staying elsewhere, free to wander around and wondering how those under lockdown were doing.
“We have requested member states to review their pandemic plans as well as health care capabilities,” Ms. Kyriakides said in Rome on Wednesday, “including capacity for diagnosing, laboratory testing and procedures for contact tracing.”
The European push came as Spanish officials announced on Wednesday that one person each in Madrid, Catalonia, Seville and La Gomera, another of the Canary Islands, had tested positive for the virus, lifting the country’s total to 13.
Several of the patients — like the doctor and his partner at Costa Adeje Palace — had recently arrived from Italy, which has seen an eruption of more than 300 cases, the most in Europe. Italy’s Lombardy region has been hit especially hard by the outbreak. Cases that appear to be connected to Lombardy have also been reported in France, Austria, Croatia and Switzerland.
Still, Fernando Simón, the head of Spain’s emergency coordination center, said the country did not yet see a need for measures like border or airport checkpoints to control the coronavirus.
On Wednesday, there were two types of visitors in Adeje: those who remain sealed in their hotel because of the coronavirus and those staying elsewhere, free to wander around and wondering how those under lockdown were doing.
“How are they getting breakfast in there?” asked Katrien Van Gele, a visitor from Belgium.
“How are they getting breakfast in there?” asked Katrien Van Gele, a visitor from Belgium.
Hundreds of vacationers at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel were ordered not to leave the building after the illness was diagnosed in an Italian doctor and his partner. The authorities sought to trace everyone who had come in contact with the doctor at the resort.
Most people outside the Costa Adeje Palace said they were unconcerned about the outbreak but would avoid tourist-heavy areas of Tenerife.
However, 106 guests who had arrived at the hotel after the Italian doctor was isolated were preparing to leave later on Wednesday after receiving final clearance from the authorities.
“As long as those inside the hotel remain there for now, I think we’re safe,” said Bernd Drewitz, a visitor from Germany.
On Wednesday morning, while guests at the H10 remained restricted in their movements and the hotel said on its website that it would remain “temporarily closed for the next few days,” refrigerated food trucks and workers were sent to provide supplies to the hotel at midday, while guests there said they could leave their rooms and wander around the resort, including the swimming pool.
Others, like John, a visitor from Ireland who declined to give his surname, said he and his wife would shorten their vacation and fly back home on Friday instead of Sunday.
Communication within the hotel remained scant among guests. Some, like Laura Walter, a 24-year-old tourist from Germany, said she had not been let out of her room Wednesday morning. “We have been waiting for a call from the reception,” Ms. Walter said in a message.
Inside the hotel, at least some guests’ spirits were flagging.
In an interviews with the Spanish television channel Antena 3, a guest at the hotel showed the leftovers of the salami-and-cheese sandwiches and the fruit that had been delivered to the room he is sharing with his wife, as well as a supply of water and a set of clean sheets.
“People think we’re on extended holiday, when really it’s not that at all,” said Hannah Green, a British guest, on Instagram. “I can’t wait to leave.”
“I guess it means nobody is going to be cleaning our room all of this time,” the man said.
Another guest said, “We are seeing the beach from the balcony, but without being able to enjoy it.”
The mayor of Adeje, José Miguel Rodríguez Fraga, tried to reassure locals in front of the hotel on Wednesday, saying that the situation inside was complicated.
“We have to control a virus that isn’t totally deadly,” he said.
Mr. Rodríguez Fraga said there were 25 nationalities among the hundreds of guests in the hotel, and that the impact on the local tourism industry could be heavy. “We are a vulnerable territory,” he said. “But it’s not a catastrophe; it’s not the end of the world.”
Initially, the coronavirus reached Spanish islands that are major tourism hubs, including Tenerife. But since Tuesday, the virus has spread to the mainland, including the two largest cities in Spain, Madrid and Barcelona.
Fernando Simón, the head of Spain’s coordination center for health alerts and emergencies, said at a news conference on Wednesday that all additional cases identified in the country this week had been in “controlled situations” and had their origins traced to Italy.
For now, he said, Spain did not need additional measures to control the coronavirus. Mr. Simón said, “Spain does not recommend checkpoints at airports,” which he argued had limited efficacy. He also warned that such checkpoints could have the counterproductive effect of “relaxing” the internal monitoring of the disease.
“The situation in Spain has not changed significantly,” he said. “We have more volume, but the risk of transmission for the population hasn’t changed.”
Outside the H10 Costa Adeje, most visitors said they remained unconcerned about the outbreak but would avoid the touristy areas in the southern part of Tenerife Island.
“As long as those inside the hotel remain there for now, I think we’re safe,” said Berns Drewitz, a visitor from Germany.
Others, like John, a 61-year-old visitor from Ireland who declined to give his surname, said he and his wife would shorten their vacation and would fly back home on Friday instead of Sunday.
“We don’t want to be blocked here for two or three more weeks,” he said.
But Ms. Van Gele, the visitor from Belgium, said she wouldn’t mind being trapped on the island. “More vacation is always welcome,” she said. “Let’s just not panic.”
Elian Peltier reported from Tenerife, Spain, and Raphael Minder from Madrid. Matina Stevis-Gridneff contributed reporting from Brussels.
Elian Peltier reported from Tenerife, Spain, and Raphael Minder from Madrid. Matina Stevis-Gridneff contributed reporting from Brussels.
