Two people on the Coral Princess cruise ship, which reported 12 positive cases of coronavirus on Thursday, died overnight, according to an announcement from the ship’s captain Saturday morning.
He did not say whether those passengers had confirmed cases of coronavirus but said they were being treated in the medical center when they died, according to a recording of the announcement provided to The Washington Post.
“I know how difficult this news is to bear, but given the current situation, we remain committed to transparent and consistent communication with you,” he said. “This information will need to be shared with shoreside authorities and will become public, so I wanted you to hear it from me first.”
The cruise line did not immediately respond to questions about the deaths, but confirmed another part of the captain’s announcement: Coral Princess, which was originally heading for Port Everglades in Broward County, docked in Port Miami on Saturday morning.
The company did not explain why it changed course but informed authorities in Broward County on Friday that it would not be arriving Saturday as planned.
“Disembarkation of guests is expected to take several days due to limited flight availability,” the cruise company said. “Guests requiring shoreside medical care will be prioritized to disembark first.”
The ship appeared to be following the playbook of Zaandam and Rotterdam, two Holland America Line ships that arrived in Port Everglades on Thursday after four passengers on Zaandam died. Princess Cruises said guests who are deemed “fit to fly” are expected to start disembarking Sunday and will transfer straight to Miami International Airport to catch flights home.
[‘The holiday of a lifetime’: An oral history of the infected, rejected Zaandam cruise ship]
Anyone with respiratory symptoms who is not too sick to need hospitalization on land — or who is recovering from being sick previously — will stay on the ship until they are cleared by doctors on board.
The ship is carrying 1,898 people, including 1,020 guests.
Coral Princess left San Antonio, Chile, on March 5. A week later, Princess Cruises announced it was suspending operations, a move the rest of the industry followed. But only some passengers were able to disembark on March 19 in Buenos Aires, and ports in Uruguay and Brazil denied requests to let passengers off.
Everyone had free run of the ship until Tuesday, when the operator said a “higher-than-normal number” of people reported flu-like symptoms and ordered passengers to stay in their rooms.
Read more:
Fort Lauderdale-bound Coral Princess confirms 12 coronavirus cases on board
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