Florida finally takes cruise passengers, some on stretchers

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Passengers from an ill-fated cruise were carefully freed from their cabins and allowed to touch dry land on Friday for the first time in weeks, following the removal of 14 critically ill people who were wheeled off to Florida hospitals bracing for an onslaught of coronavirus patients.

The exodus from the Zaandaam and its sister ship the Rotterdam was expected to continue throughout the day. Floridians were getting off first, followed by other passengers. Buses were taking people healthy enough to travel directly to the airport, where they'll board chartered flights home without going through the terminal.

They'll be followed by what Carnival Corp. said was its last ship carrying passengers to a U.S. port since the pandemic was declared. The Coral Princess is expected to arrive at the Port Everglades terminal on Saturday with more than 1,000 passengers who have been isolating in their cabins, including 12 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on board.

Princess Cruises, a line owned by the larger corporation, had already announced a “higher-than-normal” number of people with flu-like symptoms aboard the Coral Princess.

“This is a humanitarian situation, and the County Commission’s top priority is protecting our 1.9 million residents while providing a contained disembarkation option for people on board who need to get safely home,” Broward County Mayor Dale Holness said in a statement late Thursday.

It was unclear when the bodies of four passengers who died on the Zaandam would be removed from the ship, which set sail on March 7, the day before the State Department warned people against cruising during the pandemic, and was thereafter barred from South American ports.

The U.S. Coast Guard has directed that hundreds of crew members should remain on the dozens of cruise ships that are...