Cruise ships with coronavirus patients will be allowed to dock in Florida

The owner of two Holland America line cruise ships off the Florida coast with coronavirus passengers has reached a tentative deal to allow the ships to dock in Fort Lauderdale. 

Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine tweeted Thursday that the county had reached a conditional deal with Carnival Corporation – parent company of the Holland America line cruise ships.

The ships, which have more than 200 sick passengers aboard, have been denied entry at multiple South American ports since departing on March 7. Four people on one of the ships have reportedly died, at least two of them from the coronavirus. 

“Clearly we’re going to be willing to accept any Floridians that are on board. My understanding is that most of the passengers are foreign nationals. I think that they’re working on ways to deal with that,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday.

DeSantis had been concerned about a deluge of patients into local hospitals.