COVID HITS 40 CREW MEMBERS, PASSENGERS OF NORWEGIAN CRUISE SHIP

At least 40 passengers and crew from a luxury cruise liner have tested positive for COVID-19 and the authorities are still trying to trace a number of passengers from two recent Arctic voyages, public health officials in Norway said on Sunday. Thirty-two of the affected crew members are from the Philippines, Terje Solsvik wrote for Reuters on August 3, 2020.

Four crew members on the MS Roald Amundsen were hospitalized on Friday when the ship arrived at the port of Tromsoe and later diagnosed with the respiratory illness. Tests showed another 32 of the 158 staff were also infected.

While the crew was quarantined on the ship, the 178 passengers who arrived on Friday were allowed to disembark before anyone had been diagnosed, triggering a complex operation to locate them in order to contain any potential spread.

So far, four of the combined 387 passengers travelling on the ship on two separate cruises since July 17 have been found to carry the virus, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) and the Tromsoe municipality said. “We expect that more infections will be found in connection to this outbreak,” said Line Vold, a senior FHI executive, adding that the passengers have been told so self-isolate.