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Four people have died on a cruise ship on which more than 1,800 passengers and crew are stranded, including several people from Vancouver Island.

“We received very sad news just now,” Metchosin’s David Kirkham wrote from the MS Zaandam on Friday morning. “Four guests have died, one overnight, two yesterday and one the day before. This has hit us very hard.”

David and wife Norma Kirkham, a couple from Sooke and some passengers from Nanaimo are among close to 250 Canadians stuck on the Holland America ship, which has been refused entry by several South American ports worried about the pandemic.

The ship, which left Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 7 for a cruise around the southern tip of the continent, hasn’t been allowed to dock since March 14.

On Friday morning, the ship was positioned off of Panama. Holland America hoped to transit the Panama Canal and dock at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Monday, but Kirkham said there was still no word on whether that would be allowed.

Passengers have been told that a small number of guests will be moved to another Holland America vessel, the MS Rotterdam, today. Priority will go to those over age 70 who show no signs of illness, and to those in inside cabins. More people are to be transferred on the weekend, Kirkham said.

The Kirkhams, who are in their 60s, have a room with an outside view.

Earlier this week, about 150 of those on board were said to have fallen ill. Kirkham said people continue to report to medical staff with symptoms. Some testing has been done, and two cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed.

“We continue to be healthy, but as I said, this has hit us hard,” he wrote.