An Italian cruise turned into a nail-biting waiting game for more than 6,000 tourists who were kept under lockdown before two Chinese passengers finally tested negative for the deadly coronavirus several hours later, according to reports.

The couple flew in to Milan from Hong Kong on Jan. 25 and boarded the Costa Esmeralda in the northern Italian port city of Savona the same day, according to Reuters. Shortly after, they came down with fevers and developed breathing difficulties, officials said.

Samples from the ailing couple were sent for testing when the ship stopped in Civitavecchia, north of Rome, on Thursday after stops in Marseilles, France, and the Spanish ports of Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca.

No one was allowed off the ship while the tests were being performed, a spokesman for the Costa Crociere cruise company said.

Costa said a 54-year old woman “was placed in solitary confinement in the on-board hospital last night with her travel companion” and that the crew followed instructions from the health ministry, according to Agence France-Presse.

The company offered to pay for food and hotels for some 1,140 people who had been due to disembark in Civitavecchia — and the Costa Smeralda was to set sail again Friday, Italian media said.

Adriano Pavan, the father of a passenger aboard with two children, told Reuters: “There is no tension, they (my relatives) have eaten, everything works, they should have been able to leave the ship but they cannot.”

The shipboard scare came as China reported its biggest single-day jump in coronavirus deaths and global fears deepened over a spread of the disease, with at least 15 countries confirming infections.

To date, at least 170 people have died and more than 7,700 infected.

The Costa Esmeralda, the fifth-largest cruise ship in the world, “came from Palma de Mallorca and is currently engaged in one-week cruises in the western Mediterranean,” the company said.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the government was “not worried, but vigilant and cautious.”