A cruise ship with four dead and nearly 200 people who have been sick with suspected COVID-19 is headed to Ft. Lauderdale where it may be allowed to dock, if company officials can come up with a proper plan, according to Dean Trantalis, the Mayor of the city.
The Holland America ship Zaandam has been denied permission to disembark passengers by several countries.
On Monday, Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis told Fox News in an interview that many of the people on board were “foreigners” that he did not want to see them “dumped” in his state.
“We cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida using up those valuable resources,” DeSantis said in the interview. “We view this as a big, big problem, and we do not want to see people dumped in Southern Florida right now.”
But the Mayor of the largest cruise ship port in the world, Dean Trantalis, offered a bit of pragmatic compassion, suggesting that there should be a plan to help the sick people on board, as well as the other passengers.
In contrast to the governor’s push back and comments about people being “dumped” in his state, Trantalis outlined his plan on CNN on Wednesday morning.
Watch Mayor Dean Trantalis’ Interview here:
