HAL: Canadians coming home

The nearly 250 Canadians stuck aboard Holland America Line’s ms Zaandam and Rotterdam will be coming home, after the two ships arrived just off the coast of Florida – where they remain following a U.S. Coast Guard order.

According to The Canadian Press, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Canadian passengers, along with those from the U.K. and other countries, will be allowed to leave the ship as it remains off-shore; Florida Governor Rick DeSantis is yet to announce whether the ship will be allowed to dock in Fort Lauderdale.

Yesterday, the U.S. Coast Guard announced that all ships at sea with 50 or more passengers must remain where they are; currently, there are more than two dozen cruise ships docked off the coast of Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Under normal conditions, when a passenger or crew member become too ill for the ship's medical team to care for, they call the Coast Guard to provide a medical evacuation to an onshore hospital. Under the new rules, sick passengers would be sequestered indefinitely on board.

The document requires all ships in U.S. waters to report their numbers of sick and dead on board each day or face civil penalties or criminal prosecution.

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