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Carnival Corporation is offering some of its cruise ships from its cruise line brands to be used as temporary hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Carnival said that some cruise ships from Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises Australia will be available.

With the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, there is external pressure on the healthcare facilities that are falling short of resources such as hospital beds.

To aid the facilities on land, Carnival Corporation has offered the cruise ships to governments and health authorities to temporarily treat patients who are not infected with Covid-19.

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This is expected to increase the land-based healthcare centre capacity for treating Covid-19 patients.

Carnival added that the interested parties will only have to cover the essential costs of ship operations.

In a statement, Carnival 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.

“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 centre equipped with central cardiac monitoring, ventilators and other key medical devices and capabilities.”

The cruise ship would be docked near the pier where it is needed. The ship would be operated by the ship’s crew and would also carry out operations on the ship.

UK-based cruise ship brand Saga also offered two ships to the government to be used as a ‘floating hotel’.

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