The suspected case surrounding an Italian guest at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace was confirmed, with reports suggesting the man’s wife had also tested positive. Some 100 hotel guests are now trapped, including more than 100 guests visiting from Belgium.
The four-star hotel is one that belongs to package tours offered by LuxairTours. The tour operator confirmed fourteen of its customers are at the hotel. The customers are four Luxembourgers, six Belgians, and four French people.
Initially, LuxairTours director Alberto Kunkel said the affected customers were not quarantined, but were being handled by a sanitary inspection unit, a point echoed by Tenerife health spokeswoman Veronica Martín. As Tuesday evening went on, the authorities confirmed the hotel had been quarantined. Guests were told they had to stay at the hotel for fourteen days.
On Tuesday evening, the Luxembourgish authorities announced that LuxairTours customers who had previously stayed at the hotel but returned over the last week will also face quarantine.
According to one of the Luxembourgish guests at the hotel, Lucien Spellini, the roads surrounding the hotel have also been closed down. He reported that a tent has been erected in front of the hotel’s entrance and doctors were putting protective gear on before seeing to guests.
Spellini said information provided at the scene is limited. Some guests have been told there would be a quarantine period of two weeks, whereas others had heard they would have to wait two to three days.
Guests have also been asked to spend as little time in hallways as possible and to turn off their air conditioning as a safety measure. The hotel’s staff has been heavily reduced, Spellini estimating it has been halved or even only a quarter of staff remain.
Staff are offering guests food and water bottles, wearing masks when making the rounds. Spellini described the atmosphere at the hotel as calm, as there is no point panicking: they’re stuck there as long as deemed fit. He and his wife were due to return home on Saturday.
Any LuxairTours customers planning to visit the hotel over the next two weeks will be offered alternatives by the operator. Those wishing to cancel their reservations are also entitled to do so until 11 March. LuxairTours announced that customers with flights to Venice and Milan and stays in northern Italy can also cancel planned trips until 8 March.
LuxairTours has a contact on the spot in Tenerife, who will provide updates on the situation. The operator is prepared to distribute masks and repatriate customers when necessary, but the process must be decided by the Spanish authorities, spokesman Joe Schroeder said.
Three Luxembourgers have been repatriated from regions which have had COVID-19 outbreaks. The first repatriation occurred on 16 February: a citizen residing in China’s Hubei province returned to Luxembourg via Berlin and Air Rescue, and was quarantined. On Friday, CGDIS transported two further Luxembourg residents to the Grand Duchy after they were flown to Paris.
However, the Luxembourgish authorities are not planning to repatriate citizens from Tenerife or northern Italy. However, they are prepared if this becomes necessary.
Currently, Air Rescue officials have basic information for the transport of infected patients, which is adapted depending on the virus in question. Protocols are constantly updated to adapt to the situation.
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