Four passengers aboard a Holland America cruise ship have died as it waits permission to cross through the Panama Canal, and nearly 150 more are experiencing flu-like symptoms. According to The Miami Herald, the captain of the Carnival Corp-owned ship, called the Zaandam, announced the deaths to passengers and crew on Friday afternoon, and said the hundreds of healthy passengers would be evacuated to another ship nearby. The ship originally left Argentina in early March, with over 1,200 passengers and more than 580 crew members. While waiting to dock in Florida’s Port Everglades, the number of sick people onboard rose from 42 on Sunday to 148 on Friday. A ship anchored nearby, the Rotterdam, was supposed to deliver supplies and COVID-19 tests, but Holland America has since decided to transfer the healthy passengers onto the ship in a “humanitarian mission.”
Read it at Miami Herald
