MIAMI (WSVN) - President Donald Trump said Micky Arison of the Carnival Corporation has offered some of his cruise ships as resources in the fight against the coronavirus.

Arison, the company’s chairman, reached out to Trump on Thursday to tell him about the offer.

“I spoke with Micky Arison of Carnival Cruise Lines, and he’s going to make ships available,” Trump said during a news conference.

Carnival has announced that select ships from four different cruise lines will be available to be converted into floating hospitals if needed. The company said each ship could create 1,000 hospital rooms for less critical, non-coronavirus patients, which could free up valuable space in land-based medical facilities in the hardest hit areas.

“In addition to the big medical ships that you have coming, if we should need ships with lots of rooms, they’ll be docked in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco — different places,” the president said.

This is not the first time Carnival has offered help in the midst of a crisis, however.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, three Carnival ships were used to provide temporary housing for victims in Galveston, Texas and Mobile, Alabama.

As medical professionals across the country prepare for a possible shortage of hospital beds, Carnival has offered to be a life raft once again.

“He has some ships that would be ideally suited for what we’re doing, and certainly, they’re big, and they have a lot of rooms, so we appreciate it from Carnival,” Trump said.

It remains unclear when or where those ships will be deployed.

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