At about 6:20 pm, the first ambulance carrying a Coronavirus patient from the Holland America cruise ship arrived at Broward General Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
It is believed that 14 ill passengers were taken off the two ships, with 10 being transported to Broward Health and the other 4 to a facility in Miami-Dade County.
Security at the Hospital is tight, as several Fort Lauderdale Police patrol vehicles are now blocking the entrance to the Emergency Room where the Coronavirus triage tent has been set up now for a couple of weeks.
Outside of this tweet from about an hour after the first patient arrived, Broward Health has been tight-lipped about their COVID-19 capabilities and deficiencies.
The Floridian has reached out to the group's communications team on several occasions, but aside from receiving an acknowledgment of our inquiry, Broward Health is not responding to any of our COVID-19 questions.
Our front line caregivers are here and ready to provide compassionate care to our patients and community.
Thank you! pic.twitter.com/4zjfo9lMRr— Broward Health (@BrowardHealth) April 2, 2020
This is the image of the very first patient to arrive. The picture was obscured by the security fence.
This is the first ambulance to arrive.
Earlier in the day before the ships docked at Port Everglades, state Rep. Chip LaMarca (R) express his concerns over the delays that have taken place since the ships passed through the Panama Canal.
My greatest concern is that we have seen delay, delay, delay as these ships came through the Panama Canal and barreled through the Caribbean Sea towards Port Everglades, without a transparent and viable plan of action in place," stated Rep. LaMarca County and Carnival leadership had 96 hours to come to an agreement, yet indecision and reluctance to listen to our maritime and military experts, who may have chosen an alternative that could have potentially kept our community safer, cost us valuable time for both the sick passengers and first responders.”
Both LaMarca and Gov. Ron DeSantis did not want the ship to dock in Fort Lauderdale.
