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Inside the 'horrifying' 4-star hotel in Tenerife, where hundreds of guests have been quarantined after a coronavirus case in the resort

Feb 27, 2020, 18:12 IST

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ReutersGuests at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife wearing masks while waiting in a communal area on February 26, 2020.
  • Hundreds of tourists at a plush hotel in Tenerife have been put on lockdown after a doctor visiting from Italy's Lombardy region tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
  • Guests at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace have described a chaotic response to the outbreak and have complained about the conflicting advice given by authorities and hotel staff.
  • While some have chosen to remain in their rooms, others are wandering around hotel grounds and have been seen relaxing by the pool in face masks.
  • Scroll down to see photos of what the quarantined resort looks like now.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tourists at the four-star H10 Costa Adeje Palace resort in Tenerife, Spain, are on lockdown for the next two weeks after a doctor visiting from Italy tested positive for the deadly novel coronavirus.

Guests have been complaining about the conflicting advice issued by authorities and hotel staff, and "horrific" conditions in the Canary Island resort.

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Here's what it's like inside the quarantined hotel.

Hundreds of tourists at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in Tenerife has been sealed off after a doctor from northern Italy tested positive for the coronavirus.

The seafront resort has 467 rooms, four pools, and three restaurants, according to The Guardian.

The Guardian said the hotel currently has 1,000 guests inside, while Reuters put the figure at 700.

The H10 Costa Adeje Palace, which is a four-star hotel chain on the coast of Adeje, was officially quarantined on Tuesday.

Tourists at the hotel have been asked to stay in isolation and not leave the hotel premises for 14 days, Sky News reported.

One guest, John Turton, told the BBC: "The hotel has been cordoned off but we're trying to make the best of what's going on. We haven't been given any more information other than the note but we're going to just wait, try and enjoy the holiday and see what happens."

Outside the resort, medical teams have been on standby, ready to respond if people develop symptoms of the virus.

Source: Sky News

But inside, tourists are complaining about the conflicting advice that has been issued by authorities and hotel staff.

Two letters sent by the hotel asked guests to "remain in their rooms" and regularly monitor their temperature with a thermometer given to them.

The letter was put under guests' doors, according to The Guardian.

Since then, little information has been given.

Source: BBC

Inside the hotel, it’s a little different. Guests say they have received little information apart from these two notes and instructions to measure their fever. “We don’t know what’s happening,” a guest from Germany told me. pic.twitter.com/qHNwIU1wdH

— Elian Peltier (@ElianPeltier) February 26, 2020

Meanwhile, other reports suggest that guests are not allowed out of the hotel's grounds, but are free to leave their rooms.

A regional government official, Maria Teresa Cruz Oval, told Reuters: "Asymptomatic hotel guests can have a normal life inside the hotel, with the required prevention measures, while the guests with symptoms will remain isolated in their rooms."

Life in the hotel on lockdown today near #Tenerife : guests can leave their room, but not the resort - #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/dJ7Oey0kZc

— Elian Peltier (@ElianPeltier) February 26, 2020

This has led to mixed actions from the guests. Some have followed the letters' advice and stayed in their rooms.

Hannah Green from England, who is staying with her boyfriend and one-year-old son, was cited by The Guardian as saying: "We woke up to a note under our door this morning saying for health reasons not to leave our room."

"But since then, we've had nothing from the hotel — no one has told us anything or what's going to happen. But we're staying in. It's a holiday from hell."

But others have been seen wandering through hotel grounds and tanning by the pool.

Turton, one of the guests, told the BBC he and his wife had seen the note but then heard people walking outside and heading to breakfast.

Another guest from the UK, Lara Pennington, told Reuters: "It's very scary because everyone is out, in the pool, spreading the virus — I won't go down to the restaurant and had to ring down and ask them to bring us food up to the room now that the restaurant has re-opened."

One guest told BBC that she was "horrified" by the conditions of the hotel. "There were hundreds and hundreds of people queuing up to get some food. And it was just claustrophobic," she said.

"When we went into the restaurant once it had calmed down, we went to go get a plate and the first person that we saw was an elderly lady, who had a gash on her arm and her mask was coming off her face and she was coughing," Selina Lund told BBC.

Some guests who couldn't make it to the restaurant for their food have also been getting food delivered to them. But photos on social media show what looks like airplane food.

Guests of H10 Costa Adeje Palace have been given a second note under the door to say they need to stay in their room for 24 hours.

Medics in hazmat suits visited rooms to take guests temperatures using a thermal temperature gun.

Another food package was also delivered pic.twitter.com/p97GvoZuy4

— Kacey O'Riordan (@KaceyORiordan) February 25, 2020

"Nobody is telling us what's going on, how long this is going to last and who is going to feed us," another guest from the UK, 60-year-old David Hoon, told MailOnline. "The way this has been handled is a disgrace."

Source: MailOnline

The hotel said it would be closed until March 15, and that it is taking care of guests "best way possible."

A statement on the hotel's website said it is "providing customers and hotel staff all the necessary care and attention so that, despite the inconveniences this situation may cause, they are taken care of in the best way possible."

This isn't the first time a large tourist site has been quarantined over the coronavirus. The Diamond Princess cruise ship, which had some 3,700 people on board, was quarantined after a passenger tested positive for the virus.

Experts have criticized the way the Diamond Princess handled its quarantine, with some even saying the measures were counterproductive and led to further spread.

Tourists at the resort now fear they will be in the same situation, The Guardian and i News reported.

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