H10 Costa Adeje Palace Tenerife Spain closes as the number of people infected at the  hotel doubles overnight

The Costa Adeje Palace Tenerife has closed as the number of people struck down with coronavirus reportedly doubled overnight.

An Italian doctor and his wife who had been staying at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace had already been transferred to Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria University Hospital.

Two other Italians who were part of the group of 10 holidaymakers they flew to the island with on February 17, were quarantined in the same hospital late yesterday after testing positive.

News of the fresh cases came as hundreds of tourists were told they must remain in the hotel at the center of the coronavirus scare.

The decision, announced by regional health chiefs and Canary Islands president Angel Victor Torres last night at a press conference, opens up the prospect of British tourists having to spend nearly a fortnight locked in at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace before the standard incubation period ends.

Mr. Torres said the “hundred and odd” tourists who had checked into the H10 Costa Adeje Palace on Monday – and had had no contact with the Italian doctor and his wife who tested positive for coronavirus – could leave today.

Domingo Nunez, head of Epidemiology of the Canary Islands Health Service, defended the decision to keep the hotel on lockdown yesterday after it emerged a guest had tested positive for coronavirus.