MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd March, 2020) Citizens of Russia and Belarus from the Costa Pacifica cruise ship have left Italy and are headed to Moscow, the Russian Embassy in Italy has announced.
Costa Pacifica left Buenos Aires for Europe on March 3. The Spanish authorities did not allow the ship to dock amid the coronavirus epidemic and it continued toward France's Marseille. France did not allow Russians on board the ship to go ashore, so they stayed on Costa Pacifica, which headed for Italy's Genoa. From there, Russian and Belarusian citizens were sent to an airport in Rome so that they could then fly to Moscow.
"All 37 Russian and four Belarusian tourists who disembarked from Costa Pacifica on the morning of March 21 in Genoa have successfully arrived in Rome and have flown out to Moscow," the Russian Embassy said in a statement.
Italy has been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, with the death toll from COVID-19 in Italy having surpassed the coronavirus death toll in China, where the first COVID-19 cases were registered in December.
According to the Johns Hopkins University count, there are over 53,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in Italy, with the death toll standing at over 4,800.
