The MSC-controlled Grandi Navi Veloci is said to be ready to convert one or more of his vessels in hospital ships to face the Coronavirus emergency in Italy.
According to the local newspaper Il Secolo XIX the ferry company headed by Matteo Catani proposed to the local municipality and the Liguria region to convert and equip one of its vessels moored in Genoa for accommodating infected people or just persons in quarantine. The idea was also somehow supported and participated by the classification society Rina and would make possible to solve the problem of the lack of beds in the hospitals due to the emergency.
MSC Cruises also would be ready to offer the MSC OPERA (currently stopped in Genoa) for the same use which may be replicated also in some other ports in central and southern Italy if needed.
Update 12/3
A second project for a hotel ship is being considered for the port of Palermo by the Sicily Region.
Also Moby and Tirrenia said they could propose ships to be used as accommodation hotel or hospital.
