As the death toll of coronavirus victims rises daily, alarm grows in the rest of the world as nations prepare to face an outbreak.

This morning in Italy, a Costa Crociere cruise was blocked at the harbor of Civitavecchia as tests were conducted on two passengers, a husband and wife from Hong Kong.

The two, who showed symptoms of fever, were isolated and examined for the virus. The 6,000 passengers aboard were forbidden to leave the cruise until the results, which ultimately proved negative for coronavirus, came in hours later.

Holding thousands of people on lockdown for hours over a suspected coronavirus case might seem like an overreaction but, according to experts, isolation is the best measure at the moment to fight the spread of the virus.

"Quarantine is essential in trying to contain the viral infection," said David Carrington, a specialist in clinical virology within the Infection Care Group and Department of Medical Microbiology at St George's Hospital London, UK.

In the UK, the government and Public Health England asked travelers coming back from the Hubei province in China to notify them of their return and get in touch if they are showing symptoms of the infection.

According to the UK government, a total of 1,466 passengers and 95 staff members arrived in the country from Wuhan between 10 and 24 January.

Of those, 161 people have been tested and were all found not to have the virus.

The UK government has also advised travelers returning from Wuhan within the past 14 days to stay indoors and avoid contact with other people.

But how likely are people to comply with voluntary isolation?

"Obviously what will be really helpful is if the government and the employers do allow people to be at home on the guidance of Public Health England, to be away from work so that they're not penalized for being sick under the directions of the government," said Carrington.

According to Carrington, education will also be key to avoid the spread of the infection within the large community.

"What we need are containment measures, so respiratory hygiene, hand hygiene, good infection prevention procedures to allow this virus to be killed and disposed of without it spreading out of that containment area."

Face masks won't really protect people from the virus, as, to be really efficient, people need to change them every 20 minutes, said Carrington. But in the virologist's opinion, face masks can help us touch our noses and mouths less, something we do very often without taking much notice and which can spread the virus. "Hand-to-mouth contact is just as important as the prevention of breathing in the secretions," said Carrington.

For to help prevention, Carrington suggests some simple, common-sense measures: keep tissues and hand sanitizers to hand.