Carnival Corporation has announced that several of its cruise ships from its global cruise companies, including Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises Australia, would be available for use as temporary hospitals to help manage the growing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health systems around the world.
With the continued spread of COVID-19, additional pressure is expected on hospital facilities, including a shortage of beds. Therefore, Carnival Corporation is calling on governments and health authorities to consider using cruise ships as temporary healthcare facilities to treat non-COVID-19 patients, freeing up space in land-based hospitals to treat coronavirus cases. As part of the offer, interested entities will only be required to cover the essential costs of operating the ship while it is in port.
Interested governments or health authorities can contact Monica Puello by email at MPuello@carnival.com or by phone at (305) 406-8656.
If necessary, cruise ships can be quickly outfitted to serve as hospitals with up to 1,000 rooms for treating patients with less critical illnesses than COVID-19. These temporary hospital rooms can be rapidly 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. The rooms also have en-suite bathrooms, private balconies with access to sunlight and fresh air, and isolation capabilities, if needed.
Additionally, cruise ships used as temporary hospitals to treat non-coronavirus patients could have capacity for seven intensive care units (ICUs) in the ship's medical center, equipped with centralized cardiac monitoring, ventilators, and other key medical devices. Similar to land-based healthcare facilities, the ships can house different medical areas in separate locations, using the ship's various decks to isolate each medical zone.
Temporary hospital cruise ships could dock at the pier near the community in need and be operated by their own crew, with all maritime operations, food and beverage services, and cleaning provided by the crew. Medical services would be provided by the government or hospital entity responsible for combating the spread of the coronavirus in that community.
