Two passengers suspected of having coronavirus have been quarantined on a Costa Cruises vessel in Italy, while six crew were cleared of having the disease on a CMA CGM boxship near the Gulf of Aden.

The ill husband and wife from Hong Kong have been placed in solitary confinement on the 5,000-berth Costa Smeralda (built 2019), Italian media said.

They are in the hospital on the vessel, which in the fleet of cruise giant Carnival Corp, in the port of Civitavecchia.