FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A cruise ship that has been floating at sea with coronavirus patients aboard for two weeks after being turned away from South American ports was finally allowed to dock in Florida on Thursday.
The Zaandam and a sister ship sent to help it, the Rotterdam, were both given permission to disembark passengers at Port Everglades after days of negotiation with local officials who feared that it would divert needed resources from a region that has seen a spike in virus cases.
The final agreement was reached Thursday afternoon between local, state and federal officials and Carnival Corp., which owns the Zaandam and the Rotterdam, said Broward County officials and Holland America, the company that operates the ships.
Port Everglades traffic records listed the two ships' arrival as "confirmed," and helicopter images showed that the Zaandam reached the port in Fort Lauderdale.
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Holland America had said 45 passengers who were mildly sick would stay on board until they recovered, but that it needed 10 people to be taken to a Fort Lauderdale hospital for immediate medical care. Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine said the agreement allowed for only fewer than five people to be taken to a hospital.
For nearly three weeks, passengers have not been able to step on dry land. Four elderly passengers have died on the Zaandam, at least two from covid-19, said William Burke, chief maritime officer for Carnival Corp., which owns the ships. Nine people have tested positive, Burke said earlier this week.
There are 442 guests and 603 crewmen on the Zaandam, and 808 guests and 583 crewmen on the Rotterdam. The Rotterdam was sent last week to take in some of the passengers and provide assistance to the Zaandam since it was denied permission to dock at ports in South America.
About 250 have reported influenza-like symptoms since March 22, including 17 aboard the Rotterdam, while currently, 45 are mildly ill, Holland America Line has said.
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In an email sent Wednesday night, Holland America said it had received approval from a hospital in Fort Lauderdale to treat fewer than 10 people "who need immediate critical care." Jennifer Smith, a spokesman for the Broward Health medical center, said it would accept the critically ill patients from the ship. It is not clear why the number of patients that would be treated had dropped under the agreement.
Originally firmly opposed to the ships' arrival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told the Fox News network earlier Thursday that transferring critically ill patients to hospitals was "the humanitarian thing to do."
"There is no easy solution to this," DeSantis said.
DeSantis' comments came a day after President Donald Trump suggested that he had spoken to the governor and persuaded him to allow the ships to dock in Florida.
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"We have to do something ... and the governor knows that, too," Trump said Wednesday.
The passengers who are healthy need to get off the ships, and the rest need to be treated urgently, the nation's top infectious disease official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Thursday. "You have to take care of the people who are ill. You just have an obligation to do that. And as quickly as possible," Fauci said on CBS This Morning.
Passengers and crew who have no symptoms of the virus will be bused to airports and will not be allowed inside the terminals, but will instead directly board airplanes, DeSantis said.
"You can't just release them into the general public if they have been exposed," he said.
Guests had not left the ship since March 14 and self-isolated in their staterooms since March 22, Holland America said.
For most people, the virus causes symptoms including a fever, cough and body aches that clear up in two to three weeks without hospitalization. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness including pneumonia, in which case respirators may be necessary for survival.
The Zaandam set sail from Buenos Aires on March 7 and was originally scheduled to end the first leg of the voyage at San Antonio, Chile, on March 21 before departing again for Fort Lauderdale. The ship was stranded off the coast of Panama after it was not allowed to dock in Chile and other ports along its path.
A Section on 04/03/2020