Liguria is a northwestern region of Italy that, since the WHO has declared COVID-19 as a pandemic (11 March 2020), presented 108 patients hospitalized, 34 of which were in the intensive care unit. Due to this serious epidemiological emergency, the transformation of a long-distance ferry ship into a hospital ship for COVID-19 patients who were still positive after the acute phase of the illness was carried out to free up hospital beds for patients in the acute phase. The ship was moored in the port of Genoa, the capital of Liguria. The conversion was localized to a single deck, where designated healthcare areas were identified. From 23 March to 18 June 2020, 191 patients were admitted onto the ship; they were provided with high-level healthcare guaranteed by the multi-disciplinary nature of clinical competencies available. Patients had a favorable outcome in all cases, confirmed by their recovery and negative swab results. Moreover, no cases of voluntary discharge were recorded. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only example in the world in which a passenger ship was transformed into a ship hospital for COVID patients.
Keywords: COVID-19; public health and environmental policies; ship hospital.