MIAMI _ Two people have died aboard the Coral Princess, which docked in Port Miami Saturday morning and began to unload people shortly after.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said two people were taken from the ship to Larkin Community Hospital. Three others are being sent to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa for treatment. During an online press conference, Gimenez offered condolences to family members of two passengers who died aboard the Princess. "It's heartbreaking news," he said.
Gimenez said about 65 passengers and crew members will remain on the ship under quarantine. He said that group was deemed not fit for travel because of symptoms or their medical conditions, but not so critical that they needed to be rushed to a hospital. Onboard medical staff will treat them, Gimenez said. Of the 65, 27 are passengers and 38 are crew.
That leaves more than more than 1,800 travelers and crew slated to leave the ship, board buses and make their way home.
"Most of the passengers on that ship are not ill," he said.
Gimenez said they're required to wear masks and self-isolate for 14 days once home. Most will head to Miami International Airport, and wait in closed-off terminals for charter flights arranged by cruise companies to go home. Some will board regular flights still serving destinations at an airport with severely reduced service.
The operation expands a gradual evacuation already underway at the idled port, where docked cruise ships have been unloading about 250 to 500 crew members each day to board charter flights home. Most of those are heading to the Philippines, Gimenez said.
Gimenez said talks to bring the ship to Miami began Friday afternoon, and the final docking plan wasn't ready until early Saturday. He said spoke to a Navy admiral overseeing the effort and was confident the ship could be brought to port safely. A former Miami fire chief, Gimenez said he didn't think it was right to turn away the ship in need.
"We had some people that were dying on that ship," he said. "We had to them here as soon as possible."
The mayor said he was not aware of other ships heading toward Miami, and cautioned Port Miami may not be available for future dockings if the county's hospital system becomes strained by coronavirus cases. "We have capacity here in Miami-Dade" now, he said.
"We had some people that were dying on that ship. We had to get them here as soon as possible," he said.
On Saturday, passengers were given a health screening form that asked if they had a fever, cough or difficulty breathing. Some were given forms that said they could get off the ship as soon as 1:30 p.m.
The ship began its journey on March 5 in San Antonio, Chile, and Shannon Kilbane, a passenger from California, said passengers haven't been allowed on land since March 13. Princess Cruises said in a statement Thursday that seven passengers and five crew members tested positive after the ship dropped off samples in Barbados on March 31.
"We have gone through this drill several times where we've packed our bags," Kilbane said. "I just want to get off the ship, on a plane and home to my family."
Paul Nahm, whose parents are on board and sick, is worried they won't pass a medical check and be cleared to fly home to New York.
His mother, 72-year-old Grace Nahm, got sick first, then his dad, 71-year-old Peter Nahm.
They were both tested for COVID-19. Peter's test came back positive first, but they're still waiting on Grace's test.
Princess told Paul it's because they sent his dad's tests, along with 11 others, to Barbados and sent his mom's test to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Paul said last night, his parents put him on speakerphone as a crew member came into their cabin and tried to separate them into different rooms. His parents were panicking, he said, because Peter hadn't gotten any medical care in three days and only ate and drank because his wife helped him.
The crew member eventually agreed to not separate the couple, but told them they needed to sign a waiver accepting the risk. The crew member told his parents that if they signed the waiver they would not receive medical care on the ship going forward.
Paul called it "atrocious" and said he's complained to Princess Cruises for days.
"The only reason Princess gets back to me is because I'm blowing up Twitter," he said. "They say 'please can you keep it to DM'."
Spokesman Jason Neiman told the Miami Herald the Coast Guard has given the Coral Princess permission to enter U.S. waters and arrive at the Port of Miami.
The Coral Princess, a Princess Cruises ship, was previously turned away from a scheduled docking at Port Everglades on Saturday. The company announced the shift early in the morning, then later the Coast Guard posted an order barring the ship from entering U.S. territorial waters until it had an approved plan for disembarking passengers.
