ABOUT BLOODY TIME: Cruise ships finally given approval to dock in Florida

The Zaandam which has been floating at sea with coronavirus patients aboard for two weeks after being turned away from South American ports, and a sister ship sent to help it, the Rotterdam, were finally both given permission to disembark passengers at Port Everglades after days of negotiation with a nervous governor and local officials and who feared it would divert needed resources from a region that has seen a spike in virus cases.

The final agreement was reached on 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,” the Zaandam reached Fort Lauderdale just before 5pm yesterday. The Rotterdam was currently off the coast of South Florida and was heading for the port.

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 only allowed for 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 for the new coronavirus, Burke said earlier this week.

There are 442 guests and 603 crew on the Zaandam, and 808 guests and 583 crew 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.

Donald Trump said Wednesday there are plans to remove nearly 250 Canadians from two cruise ships and get them back to Canada.

The US Coast Guard has directed all cruise ships to remain at sea where they may be sequestered “indefinitely” during the coronavirus pandemic, but Trump said Canada is coming to get the Canadians from the MS Zaandam and the Rotterdam.

“We’re taking the Canadians off and giving them to Canadian authorities. They’re going to bring them back home,” Trump said at press briefing on Wednesday.

Trump said the same is true for citizens of the United Kingdom on the ships.

About 250 have reported influenza-like symptoms since March 22, including 17 aboard the Rotterdam, while 45 currently are mildly ill, Holland America Line has said.

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 Broward Health medical centre, 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.

In a complete change of heart, undoubtedly inspired by his ambitious political plans for the future Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was originally firmly opposed to the ships’ arrival, told Fox News network on Thursday that transferring critically ill patients to hospitals was “the humanitarian thing to do.”

“There is no easy solution to this,” DeSantis said as he backed off his original position.

The governor, who earlier refused to let the ships dock saying, “Just to drop people off at the place where we’re having the highest number of cases right now just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

DeSantis’ latest comments came a day after Donald Trump suggested that he had spoken to the governor and persuaded him to allow the ships to dock in Florida.

“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 on 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.

Holland America has said that guests fit for travel under guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control would transfer “straight from the ship to flights for onward travel home, the majority on charter flights.”

“Out of an abundance of caution, these guests will be transported in coaches that will be sanitized, with limited person-to-person contact and while wearing masks,” the company said in a statement.

Guests have not left the ship since March 14 and have self-isolated in their staterooms since March 22, the company 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 cruise was stranded off the coast of Panama after it was not allowed to dock in Chile and other ports along its path.

With files from the Canadian Press