A stricken cruise ship bound for Florida with four dead passengers and more than a hundreds more experiencing flu-like symptoms will be allowed to port in Florida, according to a report by NBC News.
For days, Gov. Ron DeSantis had indicated he was opposed to allowing the ship and an accompanying vessel to dock in South Florida, citing health care resources already being stretched thin from the widening coronavirus outbreak in his state.
Officials in Broward County, where Port Everglades is located, had been scrambling to come up with a plan to port the two vessels inbound from South America. The county commission 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 morning, 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 by 1:30 Friday afternoon, NBC reports.
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 coronavirus, and 179 developed flu-like symptoms. The ship was refused port throughout South America.
According to NBC, the nine positive passengers are expected to be taken to a hospital and 45 others who are ill will remain quaratined on the ship. Foreign nationals will be taken by bus to awaiting chartered planes.
Previously
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.”
St. Simons couple on board
DeSantis stayed in touch with the White House the entire week, and relented after President Donald Trump urged the governor to drop his opposition, according to Reuters.
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 Brunswick News.
Two of the four deaths on board the Zaandam have been blamed on COVID-19 and nine people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the company said. The latest reports say at least two people on board are now in need of emergency attention.
The Rotterdam has almost 1,450 aboard. More than 300 U.S. citizens are on both ships combined, according to reports.
No one has been off the Zaandam since March 14 in Punta Arenas, Chile, CNN reported.
— This is a developing story. Please return to AJC.com for updates.
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