Hurtigruten is canceling its cruises and admitting poor procedures after a COVID outbreak on one of its ships. The Norwegian Public Health Institute (FHI) believes the shipping company may have violated the country's virus regulations by not testing the crew.
The matter will now be investigated by the police.
In a press release, Hurtigruten states that all "expedition cruises" are being stopped until further notice. These are a type of luxury cruises that are operated with three of the company's more than ten ships. Other operations, which include ferry lines in Norwegian fjords, are apparently not affected by the stop.
One of the cruise ships is the MS Roald Amundsen, which is being quarantined in Tromsø. So far, 36 people from the 163-strong crew on the ship have tested positive for COVID-19. Most are from the Philippines, which is classified as a risk area. Several passengers are also infected and testing to see if more are infected is underway. According to Norwegian TV2, 386 passengers from 69 municipalities have been quarantined and work is underway to map all passengers who have been on board the ship in the past two weeks.
According to FHI, the infection situation applies to two voyages with the MS Roald Amundsen around Svalbard, both at the end of July, with both embarkation and disembarkation in Tromsø.
The authority believes that the crew should have been quarantined and tested in Norway before they started working on the ships. The shipping company Hurtigruten states that the voyages had the same crew on both trips and that it believes that all rules were followed.
The Norwegian travel quarantine rule states that crews who gather on a ship must first be quarantined in Norway. However, the shipping company says that this rule was introduced after the last departure from Tromsø.
Since the information emerged, the Norwegian police have announced that they will investigate whether the Hurtigruten has violated the country's virus regulations.
”"We will form a complete picture of the course of events. The police will probably obtain information, among other things, by questioning people with key roles," says Thomas Rye-Holmboe at Troms Police District to NTB.
