In his latest press conference today (19 March), US president Donald Trump said he had spoken with the chairman of Carnival Corporation, Micky Arison, about making the company’s ships available for coronavirus relief.

“I spoke with Micky Arison of Carnival Cruise Line. He’s going to make ships available. So in addition to the big medical ships that you have coming, if we should need ships, lots of rooms, they’ll be docked in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, different places,” said president Trump.

In a statement, a Carnival spokesperson said: “We are fully supportive of the announcement to requisition some of the Corporation’s ships as hospitals, should it be necessary. At this time ships from the P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard fleets are not included.”

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, said Carnival.

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. The rooms also have bathroom facilities, private balconies with access to sun and fresh air, as well as isolation capabilities, as needed.

Additionally, cruise ships being used as temporary hospital facilities to treat non-covid-19 patients would have the ability to provide up to seven intensive care units (ICUs) in the ship’s medical center equipped with central cardiac monitoring, ventilators and other key medical devices and capabilities.

Similar to land-based health facilities, cruise ships can also house multiple medical functions in disparate locations by using different decks on the ship to separate each required medical area.

Following the outbreak of coronavirus, Carnival Corporation, which owns many cruise brands including Princess Cruises, Cunard and Carnival Cruise Line, made the decision to suspend its lines’ global cruise operations.

Carnival Cruise Line has ceased cruises for ships based in North America from now until 9 April. In a statement the line said:

“While Carnival has not had a diagnosed case linked to our operation we realise this situation is bigger than the cruise industry and we will continue to do our part to support public officials to manage and contain this unprecedented public health challenge.”

Visit gov.uk for the latest coronavirus travel updates.