In a White House press conference, President Trump told reporters that Carnival Corporation's chairman Micky Arison had called him to offer the use of the company’s idled vessels as hospitals against the Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Carnival Corporation owns 9 brands (subsidiary companies) AIDA, Costa, Carnival, Cunard, Holland America, P&O (UK and Australia), Princess and Seabourn., with a combined fleet of 102 passenger liners and total passenger capacity 225,000+ (daily).
Trump was not specific on how the ships might be used but said he would be talking to the governors of New York and California to see if they could be of help, possibly providing "emergency accommodations". In a press release, Carnival later clarified that the liners would not be used as hospitals per se (for treating Coronavirus patients) or as quarantine facilities. According to Carnival, the ships can serve as hospitals that can treat non-COVID-19 patients. The ~1000 per ship cabins are all with en-suite bathrooms and can be quickly fitted with remote monitoring (cardiac, respiratory, oxygen saturation, video) equipment.
Carnival also is “offering the use of the ships at the costs of operating the ship with no profit to the company”.
After all major cruise companies suspended fleet operations last week, many ships are currently anchored or docked in various ports in The Bahamas and around the USA. You can see all ships' current locations at CruiseMapper's tracking map.
For Coronavirus updates on cruise ship quarantines (infected passengers and crew) and top-pandemic countries (COVID-19 cases and deaths, daily updated statistics) see at CruiseMapper's Norovirus page.