Coronavirus: Elderly British couple beg to be allowed off cruise ship after fellow Brit dies

An elderly British couple aboard a coronavirus-infected ship bound for Florida has issued a desperate plea to the United States to allow the vessel to dock.

Tony and Jennie Wills from Earls Barton in Northamptonshire spoke out after the state governor signalled he did not want the Zaandam’s passengers and crew dumped on his doorstep.

Four guests on the cruise ship have died, including a British man. There are nine confirmed cases of COVID-19 among almost 200 sick passengers and crew.

“This is a real humanitarian crisis and we appeal, we pray, we implore America, all the governments around the world, please America, please let us land somewhere,” Mrs Wills, 74, said in a video message shared with Sky News.

“Please, please, we just so all want to come home. This is on behalf of absolutely everybody on board the two ships.”

Her husband, 80, said information from the captain and the cruise operator, Holland America Line, had been poor.

“We are obviously realising there is a hell of a lot more illness on this boat than we ever realised and we are getting very, very worried,” Mr Wills said.

“We need to get off.”

Disaster struck the Zaandam, which was carrying more than 1,200 passengers, including some 225 Britons, last month as it was cruising around the coast of South America.

Countries began shutting their borders as fear about the coronavirus pandemic grew around the world.

On 22 March, a number of passengers and crew on board the ship started to display flu-like symptoms. Some became critically ill.

Orlando Ashford, president of the cruise operator, said that repeated requests were made to South American countries to help take the most in-need patients off the Zaandam and transported to suitable hospital facilities. But they were ignored.

Four people died including the British national. Two of the people who died were confirmed to have had coronavirus.

With no international assistance, Holland America Line used a second ship, the Rotterdam, to take onboard hundreds of apparently healthy passengers from the Zaandam.

Mr and Mrs Wills had thought they would be included in the transfer that took place off the Pacific coast of Panama at the weekend.

However, Mrs Wills had suffered minor cold symptoms ten days earlier, which appears to have meant they were left behind.

Even for those on the Rotterdam, however, the situation is tense and uncertain.

Cheryl Deeks, 66, from Mendlesham in Suffolk, appealed for help.

“I am disappointed to hear that America are even debating whether we should land or not,” Mrs Deeks said in a video message, her voice trembling with emotion.

“I can’t understand that. It’s a humanitarian rescue. We need to get to our homes. There are lots of Americans on board. It is America’s own port. I cannot understand why there is any debate whatsoever. We just want to get home.”

She and her husband, like the all the passengers in both ships, are confined to their cabin.

“We are all getting a bit fed up now,” Mrs Deeks said.

“We are pleased with the food. We could do with a bit more coffee or some sort of hot drink, we would be grateful for that but, hey ho, that’s the way it is.

“Plenty of alcohol, don’t feel like drinking, no ice but never mind. We are grateful for what we have got. At least we are healthy. I am pleased about that.”

A spokesman for Holland America confirmed that a British national was among the four passengers who died.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was providing support to the family.

“Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time,” it said.

The Zaandam and the Rotterdam passed through the Panama Canal on Monday after initially being refused entry.

Both ships are seeking to dock in Florida later this week.

The state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, is reluctant to allow the more than 1,000 passengers and crew aboard the Zaandam to disembark.

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However, Mr Trump appears set to overrule him.

Mr DeSantis told a news conference on Tuesday that Florida’s health care resources were already stretched too thin by the coronavirus outbreak to take on the Zaandam’s caseload.

The US coastguard has said if local authorities cannot agree on a docking plan, the matter will go to the federal government for decision.

Mr DeSantis said he had been in contact with the White House about ferrying medical supplies to the ships.

He told a news conference: “Just to drop people off at the place where we’re having the highest number of cases right now just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

However, US President Donald Trump said at the White House’s daily coronavirus briefing that he would ask Mr DeSantis to allow the ships to dock in Florida.

Mr Trump said: “They’re dying on the ship.

“I’m going to do what’s right. Not only for us, but for humanity.”Holland America said 73 guests and 116 crew members on the Zaandam had reported influenza-like illness symptoms.

(c) Sky News 2020: Coronavirus: Elderly British couple beg to be allowed off cruise ship after fellow Brit dies