Cruise ship Zaandam continues to look for a port to dock in. The latest to reject the ship is Fort Lauderdale in the USA, and the situation on board is becoming increasingly strained.

The 1,400 passengers on board the coronavirus-hit ship had hoped to disembark in the Florida city, but Mayor Dean Trantalis has now put a stop to those plans.

”No assurances have been received that they (the passengers) will be escorted from the ship to hospital or placed in quarantine. This is completely unacceptable,” Trantalis wrote on Twitter.

Zaandam has not been in port since March 14, as several South American ports have refused to let the ship dock.

Over the weekend, the ship was given permission to pass through the Panama Canal and also received assistance from the ship Rotterdam, which is to transport 401 passengers who have tested negative for COVID-19 to San Diego, California. Rotterdam was also able to transfer medical personnel, food, medicine, and virus tests to Zaandam.

On board the Zaandam, the situation is becoming increasingly strained.

”I am on board a ship that I cannot leave, with coronavirus patients, with four dead,” passenger Dante Leguizamon told the AFP news agency, noting that the situation is taking a toll on his mental health, not least the uncertainty of what lies ahead.

”I am out of money and out of my mind whether there is a plane that can take us back home.”

Zaandam left Buenos Aires in Argentina on 7 March and was due to arrive in San Diego two weeks later. However, after a stop in Chile on 14 March, no port has allowed the vessel to dock. 42 of the 1,800 people on board are reported to have developed flu-like symptoms.

Four people on board the ship have died, including one Swede, and another two have fallen ill with Covid-19, according to the shipping company Holland America.

Source: TT