It would allow 639 passengers, including 187 French nationals, to leave the ship in small groups, depending on the timing of their transport home.
According to the cruise operator, Italy's Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp, there were more than 1,420 passengers on the liner including 230 Americans, 168 Italians and 100 Canadians.
The company said in a statement that the Costa Luminosa had begun to disembark French passengers and other nationalities, selected to return home on the basis of transport logistics, following the positive results of on-board checks carried out by French health authorities.
The ship will then go on to Italy where the remaining guests will disembark.
Prefecture in the Marseille region said it was still waiting for test results on passengers showing symptoms of coronavirus infection. It added one passenger was hospitalized.
Maritime Business World