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| - Passengers on the coronavirus-stricken Zaandam cruise ship headed out into the Caribbean bound for the US on Monday after transiting the Panama Canal, their destination uncertain after the company said it was still searching for a port that will allow them to disembark. The Holland America Line ship passed through the canal from the Pacific side overnight. It was followed a couple of hours later by its sister ship, the Rotterdam, which the company had dispatched from San Diego to take on the healthiest of the 1,800 passengers aboard the Zaandam. "It's been an extraordinary day" Ilya Maortta, deputy administrator of the Panama Canal wrote on Twitter after the authority had reversed an earlier decision to block the ship's passage. "Now the question arises which port will take them in and under what conditions," said Gurvan Le Pavec, whose parents are aboard the Zaandam. The destination "is not certain yet," he told AFP. The Zaandam had been stuck in the Pacific Ocean since March 14 after dozens of those on board reported flu-like symptoms -- including four who subsequently died -- and several South American ports refused to let it dock. Holland America Line President Orlando Ashford admitted they were still searching for a port after the mayor of Fort Lauderdale -- the ship's intended destination -- said the Florida city could not take the risk of accepting the passengers. Ashford said in a video message the company was still trying to "figure out" where to disembark passengers from the stricken cruise liner. The situation was "difficult and unprecedented," he said. but Fort Lauderdale mayor Dean Trantalis later said allowing the Zaandam to dock in his city was "completely unacceptable" as no special assurances had been given about the passengers' onward travel arrangements. "No assurances have been given that they will be escorted from the ship to either a treatment facility or placed in quarantine. This is completely unacceptable," Trantalis said on Twitter. "We cannot add further risk to our community," Trantalis said. "There are many places on the eastern seaboard where this ship could dock and be dealt with in a much more controlled environment," he said. "The problem here is that Port Everglades sits in the very middle of a vast urban area." Passengers showing no signs of the virus were ferried a short distance to a sister ship, the Rotterdam, off Panama on Saturday. The Rotterdam had arrived from San Diego carrying medical staff, testing kits and food for the beleaguered vessel. In his message, Ashford said he wanted to dispel a "myth" that one was a "healthy ship" and the other a "sick ship." "Whether you're isolated on the Zaandam or isolated on the Rotterdam, the way that we protect the health of those of you that are healthy is to make sure that you're isolated safely while we figure out where it is that we're going to take you." Apologizing to passengers, Ashford said: "It's been a tough last several days." The Zaandam left Buenos Aires on March 7 and was supposed to arrive two weeks later at San Antonio, near Santiago, Chile. Since a brief stop in Punta Arenas in Chilean Patagonia on March 14, it has been turned away from several ports after reporting that 42 people aboard were suffering from flu-like symptoms. US passenger Laura Gabaroni pleaded for help Sunday, saying that the ports that had turned the Zaandam away would have the deaths of passengers on their conscience. "Four people are now dead, and that is on the head of all the people along the way who turned us away," Gabaroni told AFP. jjr/db/ft
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