Holland America has reached a deal with authorities that will allow

the cruise line to dock two of its ships, the MS Zaandam and MS
Rotterdam, at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
"It’s my understanding that the unified command has now reached
an agreement with Broward County to allow the folks [on board] to
disembark," Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis told USA TODAY
Thursday. "We were made privy of the details yesterday, and we’re
hopeful that this new protocol that they’ve agreed to will sufficiently
insulate our people in Fort Lauderdale at risk of [contracting] the
disease."
Four elderly passengers on the Zaandam died. Two of the four
deaths on board the Zaandam have been blamed on COVID-19, and
nine people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the
company said.
Since March 22, 97 passengers and 136 crew members between the
Zaandam and the Rotterdam have presented flu-like symptoms,
according to a Holland America statement provided by
spokesperson Sally Andrews. Symptoms of the flu and COVID-19,
the coronavirus sweeping the globe, are similar. 
Passengers who passed a health screening were transferred to the
Rotterdam last weekend. The passengers on board both ships will be
put into three basic categories, Trantalis explained.
The first group, which includes around 1,200 passengers who are
asymptomatic, will be allowed to disembark Friday or Saturday.
Then they will be taken in chartered buses directly to the airport's
tarmac to fly out on private, chartered flights. They will also go
through separate customs and border patrol processes. 
"That way they won’t infect anyone along the way," Trantalis said.
Passengers have been isolated in their rooms since March 22 unless
they made a transfer to the Rotterdam from the Zandam, when they
would have been on a tender between the two ships for a brief
period.
The second group, containing 45 symptomatic passengers,
according to Trantalis, will remain on board the ship. All those
passengers will be required to quarantine on board. Once they are
asymptomatic for 72 hours, they will be allowed to disembark with
the same protocol as the first group.

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And the third group, made up of only nine people, contains eight
passengers and one crew member in need of critical care. All nine
will be taken off the ship. "Our local hospital system is willing and
prepared to take them in," Trantalis said.
The rest of the crew will remain on board.
Trantalis also announced the agreement on social media, and
shared some of his thoughts on the deal.
Officials had been apprehensive about the possibility of the ships
docking in Fort Lauderdale given the risk that it could pose to the
community and the potential to spread coronavirus as cases of the
virus were confirmed to be on board the MS Zaandam.
"We're assuming people who get sick have COVID," William
Burke, chief maritime officer of Carnival Corp., which owns Holland
America Line, said Tuesday during a Broward County Commission
meeting, though only nine had tested positive at the time.
Trantalis said that regulations in the agreement will provide "strong
safeguards" to the community given the decision to allow the ships
to dock.
"I met yesterday with the president of Holland America to share
these concerns," Trantalis wrote. "Holland America agreed to a strict
set set of protocols if the county decided to allow the ships to dock."
"They are representing to us that these protocols are intended to
protect our community by ensuring there is no contact with local
residents," Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief wrote on
Facebook. "The vast majority of passengers are not ill and have no
symptoms. They will be placed on private chartered buses, taken
directly to the airport tarmac and board chartered flights out of our
community. A small number of critically ill passengers will go to
local hospitals. Others who are mildly ill or have symptoms will be
quarantined at sea on the ships until they recover."