A cruise ship stricken by an outbreak of the coronavirus and refused port throughout South America was finally being disembarked in Florida on Friday after nearly three weeks at sea with four dead and more than a hundred aboard with flu-like symptoms.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finally allowed the boat and its accompanying vessel to dock Thursday in Port Everglades after several days of intense negotiations with local officials and the White House that kept frustrated passengers in limbo, wondering when the ordeal would end.
Reports said 14 critically ill aboard the Zaandam were the first to be let off Thursday at Port Everglades and taken to two local hospitals. Of them, 13 were passengers and one a crew member.
By Friday morning, other passengers aboard that ship, and the second vessel, the Rotterdam, were being allowed out of their cabins and heading home, according to reports.
A docking plan released late Thursday indicated that 26 passengers and 50 crew members were mildly ill and would stay on board the Zaandam until they recovered, according to The Associated Press. All healthy crew members would also be staying on board.
DeSantis initially said health care resources were already stretched thin from the widening coronavirus outbreak in his state, but pressure from President Donald Trump finally convinced him to allow the vessels to port.
Broward County commissioners were initially divided as well and debated the issue for more than five hours Wednesday but were unable to reach a conclusion at the time, CNN reported.
As the situation unfolded, the U.S. Coast Guard released a memo ordering cruise ships to remain offshore while treating any sick passengers in the region of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Puerto Rico.
The Coast Guard also said foreign vessels “that loiter beyond U.S. territorial seas” should evacuate sick passengers in their own countries.
By early Thursday, the boats were still anchored off the South Florida coast, awaiting word on what to do. Shortly before 9 a.m. a deal was announced to allow both ships to dock at Port Everglades the same afternoon.
Sick passengers disembarked then.
Reports say the evacuation was conducted like a military-style operation. Passengers were given face masks to wear while deboarding, then immediately put on buses to be taken to charter planes already awaiting at the nearby airport, where none of the passengers were allowed inside the terminal. Foreign nationals were also taken by bus to the awaiting chartered planes.
Previously
The Zaandam, carrying nearly 1,050 passengers and crew, set sail from Buenos Aires on March 7, and soon four passengers died and another nine tested positive for the coronavirus, and 179 developed flu-like symptoms. The ship was refused port throughout South America.
The Zaandam was allowed to pass through the Panama Canal for an emergency journey to the United States, with an accompanying vessel, the Rotterdam, where healthier passengers were moved.
Before leaving Panama, the ship’s owner, Holland America, announced the ship’s intention to travel to Fort Lauderdale, but officials at Port Everglades on Sunday said the plan had not yet been approved.
The governor gave an interview to Fox News the following morning, saying bringing the ships to Florida was “a big, big problem.”
“We cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida using up those valuable resources,” DeSantis said Monday, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “We view this as a big, big problem, and we don’t want to see people dumped in southern Florida right now.”
A couple from St. Simons Island aboard the Zaandam started an email campaign to help convince DeSantis to allow the boat to dock, according to report by The Brunswick News.
Bob and Jennifer Broadus said a crew member and internet access kept them up to date on the latest developments as the boat sailed in limbo for weeks.
“DeSantis is using some pretty tough rhetoric by saying he doesn’t want our passengers dumped in Florida. Garbage is dumped — we are not garbage. We are human beings,” Jennifer Broadus said, according to The Brunswick News.
Two of the four deaths on board the Zaandam were attributed to COVID-19 and nine people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the company said.
The Rotterdam had almost 1,450 aboard. More than 300 U.S. citizens are on both ships combined, according to reports.
No one had been off the Zaandam since March 14 in Punta Arenas, Chile, CNN reported.
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