PORT LOUIS/ROME, Feb 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The authorities in Mauritius have held Italian passengers on board an Alitalia flight arriving from Rome, and have told them that anybody coming from the northern Italian regions worst affected by coronavirus must either go into quarantine or return home.
Alitalia says it’s arranging for the immediate repatriation of all 40 passengers coming from the Lombardy and Veneto regions, even though none are showing any symptoms.
Some 224 passengers and crew had been aboard the flight from Rome to the Indian Ocean island, but 40 people from the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto decided to head home because of the quarantine threat, Alitalia said.
Alitalia CAITLA.UL added that the decisions by the Mauritian authorities had not been disclosed to the carrier before landing and that it had alerted authorities in order to clarify the reasons why its passengers’ movements had been restricted.
A flight was being organised back to Italy “although nobody declared symptoms of illness”, the Alitalia statement said.
The people onboard the plane were allowed to disembark the aircraft over more than an hour after their landing and faced rigorous screening, Mauritian daily L’Express reported.
Italy is fighting to contain the biggest outbreak of coronavirus in Europe, which is centred in Lombardy and Veneto, with more than 200 cases confirmed since Friday and five people dying from the illness.
Tunisia may suspend some flights to Italy to reduce its exposure to the coronavirus, Transport Minister Rene Trabelsi said on a local radio station on Monday.
On Sunday, a train carrying about 300 passengers from Venice, Italy, to Munich in Germany was halted on the Italian side of the Brenner Pass before being allowed to continue its journey after two travellers tested negative for the virus.
Eleven northern towns in Italy are under lockdown, after more than 2,000 residents tested positive. Five people have died.
Churches and schools have been closed; Milan’s Fashion Week and the Venice Carnival have been cancelled. — NNN-AGENCIES