Speaker 1: It's Thursday, April two. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily
Speaker 1: coronavirus update. Florida Governor Rhonda Santis has officially declared a
Speaker 1: thirty day stay at home order for the state, after
Speaker 1: facing criticism for not doing so earlier. The other issue
Speaker 1: facing Florida is what to do with sick people on
Speaker 1: the Zandam cruise ship that wants to dock and port Everglades.
Speaker 1: The scientists only wants to take state residents that are
Speaker 1: on the ship, and the Coast Guard has said that
Speaker 1: the ships must stay out at sea with a sick
Speaker 1: on board. A plan is still being worked out for
Speaker 1: what to do, even as another sick cruise ship also
Speaker 1: plans to make its way there. Samantha Gross, reporter at
Speaker 1: the Miami Herald, joins us for more. Thanks for joining us, Samantha,
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about these cruise ships that are
Speaker 1: on their way to South Florida there. This is the
Speaker 1: zen Dam and the Rotterdam cruise ships from Holland America.
Speaker 1: One ship, the Rotterdam, has a healthy passengers and the
Speaker 1: zend M has people that have been reporting flu like symptoms.
Speaker 1: I think there have been four debts on that ship
Speaker 1: to that they said had COVID nineteen. And these ships
Speaker 1: have been turned away from port all over the world
Speaker 1: right now, and they're heading to Florida, and there hasn't
Speaker 1: been a deal cut yet with whether they're gonna they're
Speaker 1: gonna allow them to dock there and to get anybody
Speaker 1: off the ship there. Semantha tell us the latest. What
Speaker 1: do we know what's going on here? Yeah, so both
Speaker 1: ships are traveling at around twenty one knots, which could
Speaker 1: put them um near South Florida by about one am
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning. Um, they're kind of rounding Cuba this morning,
Speaker 1: so they're headed towards South Florida. But there still isn't
Speaker 1: a concrete plan as to what's going to happen to them. Um,
Speaker 1: they're about twelve passengers on board both ships, and you
Speaker 1: know at least nine aboard are sick, and so they're
Speaker 1: they're trying to make some plans for them, but there
Speaker 1: hasn't been anything finalized yet, which is a cost for
Speaker 1: concern for a lot of people. As we've seen with
Speaker 1: other cruise ships, most notably the one that docked in
Speaker 1: Japan when they had a bunch of people that were
Speaker 1: sick with coronavirus. It becomes this kind of breeding ground
Speaker 1: for it. So the longer that they stay on this ship,
Speaker 1: the possibility increases that they might come down with this.
Speaker 1: Governor RHN De Santis has said that he'd be willing
Speaker 1: to take residents from Florida off of the ship first,
Speaker 1: but they really don't want anybody to come onto shore
Speaker 1: because they just feel it's gonna overwhelm the health system there.
Speaker 1: That's right, and there is a cost for concern there.
Speaker 1: I mean Broward County, where Port Everglades is is a
Speaker 1: hot spot of COVID nineteen cases in Florida. South Florida
Speaker 1: has more than half of the cases statewide, and so
Speaker 1: people are definitely worried about draining resources here considering, um,
Speaker 1: you know, the hospital system is already starting to see
Speaker 1: kind of an influx in patients. Um, they want to
Speaker 1: preserve the health care system, but of course there are
Speaker 1: so many people who are going to need how and
Speaker 1: so I think they're trying to arrange a plan for
Speaker 1: getting those people home to where they can get care. Okay,
Speaker 1: I have this question. I'm sure everybody's asking it in
Speaker 1: their heads. Why are people even on these cruise ships?
Speaker 1: Why are they sailing? I mean, we saw what was
Speaker 1: happening with the very first ships in Japan and it
Speaker 1: was a mess there, So why would people put themselves
Speaker 1: in these situations? Again, I know that these ships are
Speaker 1: both coming from South America, right right, So the crews
Speaker 1: were you know, from South America and they left on
Speaker 1: March eighth, and so that was kind of before the
Speaker 1: state had kind of taken this more seriously. Before there
Speaker 1: were a lot of more warnings about trouble and fight
Speaker 1: cancelations and things like that, and so a lot of
Speaker 1: the people who were on this ship's thought that things
Speaker 1: were okay when they were boarding, but obviously in the
Speaker 1: last month things have taken quite a dive. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of these people have been on
Speaker 1: these ships for a really long time, and that's you know,
Speaker 1: part of why it is troublesome that they've you know,
Speaker 1: they're getting sick and they're in this kind of confined space.
Speaker 1: But the cruise, you know, was supposed to end in
Speaker 1: Chile on March. It was of March eight cruise. So
Speaker 1: what I've been seeing also is that the people that
Speaker 1: were sick were on the Zendam cruise ship, so they
Speaker 1: dispatched the Rotterdam to take healthy passengers off. Is that
Speaker 1: ship still not being allowed to talk also, even though
Speaker 1: they're saying that people are healthy on that ship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: both ships are kind of in flux right now. Both
Speaker 1: ships are headed towards Port Everglades, and it's it's unclear,
Speaker 1: you know, what they're going to do. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: people who were in exhibiting symptoms on the Zandam were
Speaker 1: taken onto the sister ship, the Rotterdam. But that doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily mean that all those people aren't carrying the virus.
Speaker 1: You know. I think there's a lot of concern of
Speaker 1: asymptomatic people who have been in contact with folks who
Speaker 1: were showing symptoms. So they're taking precaution for both ships,
Speaker 1: and they're saying that they're are some people that are
Speaker 1: seriously ill. The ships do have doctors and nurses and
Speaker 1: some medical facilities they're on board. That's correct. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: are infirmaries on board. Um. Someone I talked to you yesterday,
Speaker 1: her dad has been given antibiotic pills to kind of
Speaker 1: help him. He's really sick. He has pneumonia. UM. And
Speaker 1: you know, obviously people who are sick are getting as
Speaker 1: much help as they can, but it's not the same
Speaker 1: as being in a on land hospital where you have
Speaker 1: access to IV medication and you know, just more resources,
Speaker 1: more bads available. Yeah. I think the people that you're
Speaker 1: referring to also, they're stuck in a room that has
Speaker 1: no windows, so they're quarantined in there, and they've been there.
Speaker 1: I think they've had like a fever for ten days
Speaker 1: or something they reported. Those are some tough situations to
Speaker 1: be in right there. And we're also hearing that this
Speaker 1: is not the only two ships that are headed there.
Speaker 1: There's also another Princess Cruises it's called the Coral Princess
Speaker 1: is on its way also probably won't get there until
Speaker 1: maybe about Saturday or so, but they're also looking to
Speaker 1: hopefully dock there in that area. Right um, I think
Speaker 1: you know, with those ships, they're hoping that there will
Speaker 1: be a plan in place by the time that they come. Um.
Speaker 1: Right now, there have been plans that have been floated
Speaker 1: past the Broward County Commission on how to handle these passengers,
Speaker 1: and it's my understanding that whatever plan they end up
Speaker 1: putting into place would apply to any other incoming ships
Speaker 1: that would need to dock at Portific place. I'm over
Speaker 1: here in California, and a couple of weeks ago, I guess,
Speaker 1: there was a cruise ship that came down and they
Speaker 1: had this very orderly fashion and took a few days,
Speaker 1: obviously because there were so many people, but they took
Speaker 1: people out. They sent those that need to go to
Speaker 1: hospitals to hospitals, and then everybody else kind of got
Speaker 1: shipped back home. Basically, they flew them back to their
Speaker 1: own places. Does it seem that this is what's going
Speaker 1: to happen here? And really Florida has no other choice,
Speaker 1: I mean, where else do these people go? But kind
Speaker 1: of being stuck out at sea if nobody else wants them,
Speaker 1: which is kind of the case it's been already, right.
Speaker 1: So the plans I was floated that we're ultimately rejected
Speaker 1: by the Broward County Commission included chartered flights that we're
Speaker 1: going to be paid for by Carnival to send people
Speaker 1: all over the world. You know, there's quite a few
Speaker 1: you know, foreign nationals that are on the ship. Um,
Speaker 1: and so they had chartered flights that were supposed to
Speaker 1: go all over the world. I assume that whatever plan
Speaker 1: they do get in place would include some similar travel plans.
Speaker 1: Um it also allowed for people in Florida to be
Speaker 1: returned to their cars or to rent a car via
Speaker 1: you know, kind of secured ground transportation that Carnival would provide.
Speaker 1: Samantha Gross, reporter at the Miami Herald, thank you very
Speaker 1: much for joining us. Thanks. I'm Oscar Ramiers and this
Speaker 1: has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that. For
Speaker 1: today's big news stories, you can check me out on
Speaker 1: the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday. So follow
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