Four deaths on beleaguered cruise ship in search of a port

Four elderly passengers  have  of coronavirus died on board the cruise ship “Zaandam”,  anchored off the coast of Panama and, like the legendary Flying Dutchman, unable to find a berth, after being rejected in several Latin American ports  and now denied transit through the Panama Canal   said the ship’s owners the Holland-America Line

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families and we are doing everything we can to support them in these difficult times, ”the company said in a statement on its website on Friday, March 27.

The cruise ship, with some 1,800 people on board, including over 40  with flu-like symptoms, is in Panamanian waters, where it is being assisted at sea by another company vessel  “Rotterdam”, which sailed from  San Diego, in the United States, with supplies, staff and test kits for coronavirus.

The company indicated in the statement that it plans to transfer “healthy passengers” from the “Zaandam” to “Rotterdam” after they have passed health tests.

Passengers with health problems, their close contacts and the crew will remain in the “Zaandam”, added Holland America Line.

The administrator of the Panama Canal, Ricaurte Vásquez, reported that the Panamanian government denied the Dutch-flagged ship transit through the Canal for reasons of “sanitation.”

“The Ministry of Health did not give permission, the ship is in Panamanian territorial waters, but it has to be isolated,” Vásquez said in a conference call with journalists.

“They have not informed us if there are positive cases of coronavirus on board, but they have said  that the ship cannot transit) for health reasons,” added Vásquez.

The “Zaandam” set sail on March 7 from Buenos Aires to San Antonio, on the central coast of Chile, but had to alter its course due to the drastic measures taken by the South American governments against the expansion of the coronavirus. tried to dock at several ports, but found that all South American countries were closing their borders due to the pandemic.

It intended to cross the Canal to continue its route to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, hoping to disembark all of its passengers there on March 30.

But the Panama Ministry of Health has denied that possibility.

On Thursday, the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) granted permission cruise ship  to be assisted eight miles from the mainland by the “Rotterdam