A cruise ship carrying more than 1,800 people off Panama is in a race to transfer healthy passengers to another ship after four people died - and two others tested positive for coronavirus.

Four passengers have died aboard a cruise ship carrying scores of people with flu-like symptoms that has been stranded off the Pacific coast of South America for several days, the liner company said Friday.

The Zaandam, with 1,800 passengers on board, is currently in Panama's territorial waters, having been prevented from docking in several countries due to coronavirus fears.

"Holland America Line can confirm that four older guests have passed away on Zaandam," the Dutch-owned company said in a statement.

Nobody has left the ship since it docked in Chile two weeks ago.

Holland America said it planned to transfer passengers to a sister ship.

It added that 53 guests and 85 crew members had reported influenza-like illness symptoms.

There are 1,243 guests and 586 crew on board the Zaandam, including four doctors and four nurses. On the Rotterdam there are two doctors and four nurses, the company said.

The Zaandam was on a South America cruise that departed from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7 March.

On Friday, Panama reported that 14 people had so far died in the country after contracting Covid-19, with 786 confirmed cases of infection.

There are now more than 10,000 coronavirus cases in South America, AFP news agency reported.