GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2020) The Costa Victoria cruise ship with around 1,400 people on board, including 85 Russians, docked at the port of the town of Civitavecchia near Rome early on Wednesday after two months of travel but passengers and crew are yet to disembark, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
The ship was initially supposed to arrive in Venice or Trieste, but heads of the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions refused to allow the vessel to dock amid the coronavirus fears. It is unclear if there are COVID-19-positive passengers on board, but an Argentinian passenger who has got off the ship earlier on Crete has tested positive for the coronavirus.
"Costa Victoria has docked in the port. No one has disembarked. I do not want people walking around the territory of the commune," Ernesto Tedesco, the mayor of the Civitavecchia, wrote on his Facebook page.
Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in Rome confirmed to Sputnik there were 85 Russian nationals on board the ship.
"There are 85 Russians on board," the embassy said.
