Around 160 British tourists stuck in lockdown at a Tenerife hotel over coronavirus fears will have to stay in isolation for 14 days.

Guests described a chaotic response to the outbreak after four people tested positive for the virus that has continued spreading its way through Europe.

They complained they were being given conflicting advice - some being told to stay indoors but others were seen wandering through the hotel grounds and swimming in the pool.

Image: One holidaymaker was seen in a swimming costume and mask

Image: Another sunseeker sunbathed wearing a mask

One British holidaymaker told Sky News a note was put under their door telling them to "stay calm" and "not leave your room".

But other advice suggested "people could walk the grounds so long as they were wearing masks".


Image: Guests gathered together in a queue for food outside the hotel restaurant

Guests were also pictured on sun-loungers and in the pool, as well as standing together in a queue for food in the restaurant.

One said: "Very confusing what the actual risk/guidance is."

Image: The H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife

Image: Notes passed under room doors warned holidaymakers not to leave their room

The exact number of Britons in the hotel is unknown but it is understood that around 160 are stuck there.

The H10 Costa Adeje Palace was placed in quarantine on Monday after an Italian doctor staying there was confirmed as having COVID-19 after coming down with a fever for six days.

His wife and two more Italians travelling with them have also tested positive for the virus but the other six members of their group tested negative, according to the Canary Islands' health ministry.

Image: Some guests were pictured swimming in the hotel pool

The hotel said it is now completely shut for at least "the next few days" in a bid to prevent further infections and anyone with a reservation will be "contacted and relocated to another H10 Hotel in Tenerife".

News all guests would have to be quarantined came from a regional government official, who told a news conference: "We have decided to put the guests in the hotel under isolation while they are being actively monitored... for 14

days."

Guests found out about the lockdown when they woke up on Tuesday morning via a note slipped below their door.

Image: The hotel has been closed due to the outbreak

Image: Guests have been barred from leaving the hotel

In other coronavirus developments:

Brazil has confirmed a case in Sao Paulo which makes it the first confirmed case in South America

Some UK hospitals and other medical sites including GP surgeries will now test flu patients for the coronavirus

The government has banned the export of an HIV drug and anti-malaria infection treatment so that they can be tested as potential treatments for COVID-19

France has confirmed the first French national to have died is a 60-year-old man in Paris

Middle East countries have closed borders with Iran, state media says

Some schools in the UK have closed after students returned from Italy ski trips with "flu-like symptoms"

The energy company Chevron says it is closing its office in London's Canary Wharf over coronavirus fears.

Image: The hotel is under lockdown

Image: Tents have been erected outside the main entrance

Image: Medical staff will test hotel guests for the coronavirus

The Tenerife hotel has nearly 500 rooms, four pools and a gym, with around 1,000 guests currently staying.

On Tuesday night a doctor visited each room and gave guests a thermometer, telling them to take their temperature twice a day, a British holidaymaker told Sky News.

They added that the doctor told them someone would ring to take the temperatures but nobody had yet.

Photos from inside the hotel showed a long queue of guests outside the hotel restaurant waiting for food.

Image: Tourists wearing face masks visit Saint Peter's Square in Vatican Square, Rome

:: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

The latest measure taken by the hotel came as doctors warned they were growing increasingly concerned about the speed at which COVID-19 is spreading around the world.

France reported three new cases on Wednesday morning, taking its total to 17, and its second death.

Public health agency director Jerome Salomon said a 60-year-old man had died in Paris on Tuesday evening - the first French national to have died after a Chinese national from Hubei province died in the country last month.

Image: Airports around the world have introduced screening

Image: The Lombardy region, which includes Milan, has been hit by coronavirus

Dr Nancy Messonnier, of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the prospect of the outbreak becoming a pandemic is a case of when, not if.

"It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen, and how many people in this country will have severe illness," she said.

Iranian minister with COVID-19 sweats on stage

The European outbreak has centred on Italy, where 322 people have been infected and 12 have died.

Most of the cases there are in the north of the country - and the UK Foreign Office is now advising against all but essential travel to the affected Lombardy and Veneto regions.

Among those infected are four children in Lombardy - a four-year-old girl, two 10-year-olds, and a 15-year-old boy.

Lombardy governor Attilio Fontana told Sky Italia they all had mild symptoms that were "little more than a cold".

Image: Tourists wear protective masks in Venice after the city's carnival was cancelled due to COVID-19

The total number of confirmed and suspected cases worldwide has surpassed 81,000, with 2,763 deaths, according to records being compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the US.

The vast majority of the cases are in China, where the outbreak originated and appears to have peaked, but the numbers have risen sharply in other countries in recent days.

South Korea has now reported 1,261 cases, including a US soldier, while Iran's count has surged to over 100.

:: Sky News will air a special programme on the COVID-19 outbreak at the 7pm tonight