Cruise ship rescues 24 people from sinking boat off Florida coast

Passengers were evaluated by medical staff and quarantined from crew members

At least two dozen people, including two children, were rescued from a sinking boat off the coast of Florida by a Carnival Cruise Line ship.

On Saturday, the company’s Carnival Sensation, which is currently without guests due to the coronavirus pandemic, rescued the passengers in international waters around 37 miles off the coast of Palm Beach, Florida, according to the Associated Press.

The cruise ship was in international waters near to the boat when crew members noticed that the passengers were in distress and offered their support.

The 24 passengers were taken aboard the Carnival Sensation when the boat started taking on water, and were provided with food, water, life jackets and blankets.

They were evaluated by the medical staff onboard, and were then quarantined from the rest of the crew on the ship.

The passengers, who are of various nationalities, were transferred to the US Coast Guard when the cruise ship got back to shore.

In March, the Centres for Disease, Control and Prevention issued a no-sail order for cruise ships, which bans vessels that have the capacity for 250 or more passengers from operating commercially in US waters.

The order was scheduled to end on 30 September, but was extended last month until the end of October, due to the ongoing pandemic.

It is not yet clear how the boat got into distress off the coast of Florida.

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 8.1 million people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 219,680.