Coast Guard to Cruise Ships: Prepare to Care for Sick at Sea
- Two of Carnival’s Holland America ships sailing for Florida
- ‘Shore-side medical facilities may reach full capacity’
Holland America's cruise ships, the Zaandam, left, and the Rotterdam, are seen in Panama City bay on March 28.
Photographer: Ivan Pisarenko/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Cruise ships should be ready to care for passengers and crew with Covid-19 and other flulike symptoms at sea, the U.S. Coast Guard has advised, saying medical evacuations are contributing to strained health-care resources in the Southeast.
Foreign-flagged vessels with more than 50 people on board should plan to treat passengers for an “indefinite period of time,” according to a March 29 memo from the Coast Guard Seventh District Area of Responsibility, which includes Georgia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and Florida, home to the world’s busiest cruise port in Miami.