Spain tries to stop coronovirus spread from Italy

Spain is trying to prevent the spread of the coronavirus from Italy after eight cases of the flu-like disease were detected within a 24-hour period all linked to the country.

Hundreds of tourists remained confined to a Tenerife hotel Wednesday for a second straight day as a precaution after an Italian man and his wife tested positive for the disease which has so far killed 11 people in Italy. The couple are in quarantine at a Tenerife hospital.

Two other Italians who were part of the same group of holidaymakers who flew to the island and were staying at the hotel have also tested positive, health authorities on the Canary Islands say.

Four other cases have been detected in mainland Spain — two in the Madrid region, one in the Valencia region and one in Barcelona, that of a 36-year-old Italian woman who lives in the city and had recently made a trip to the north of Italy, the worst affected region.

— AP