| Carnival offers assistance

CARNIVAL Corporation is offering countries around the world the use of its cruise ships to serve as temporary hospitals as the world continues to battle the spread of COVID-19.

The vessels will be offered from across its brand suite, including Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises Australia, and comes at a time when nations such as Australia face the prospect of hospital bed shortages should the virus’ spread escalate even further.

Carnival said its cruise ships are well suited to serving as a make-shift hospitals because their suites are equipped with bathroom facilities, private balconies with access to sun and fresh air, as well as isolation capabilities, if needed.

“Cruise ships are capable of being quickly provisioned to serve as hospitals with up to 1,000 hospital rooms that can treat patients suffering from less critical, non-COVID-19 conditions,” a spokesperson for the cruise line said.

“These temporary cruise ship hospital rooms can be quickly converted to install and connect remote patient monitoring devices over the ship’s high-speed network – providing cardiac, respiratory, oxygen saturation and video monitoring capabilities.”

Temporary hospital cruise ships would likely be berthed at a pier near affected coastal communities, with all maritime operations such as food and beverage and cleaning services provided by the ship’s crew.

However, Carnival also stressed that medical services would need to be facilitated by the government entity or hospital responsible for fighting the spread of COVID-19 within that community.

Governments or health authorities interested in the offer put forward by Carnival Corporation are encouraged to contact Monica Puello by email at MPuello@Carnival.com.