- All sailings with MS «Roald Amundsen», MS «Fridtjof Nansen» and MS «Spitsbergen» have been interrupted, both in and outside Norwegian waters, Hurtigruten writes in a press release.

It was on Friday morning, in connection with MS Roald Amundsen arriving in Tromsö after a week-long cruise to Svalbard, that the shipping company announced that two people in the crew had been infected by coronavis intoxication. However, the number of confirmed infections on the ship increased rapidly and by Saturday, as many as 36 of the total of 156 people in the crew had been infected. In addition, five passengers had been infected.

The ship is now in quarantine in the port of Tromsö and the shipping company is now investigating what happened. CEO Daniel Skjeldan says that they make a complete review of their routines.

- A preliminary evaluation shows that there has been a failure in several of our internal procedures, he says and adds:

- This is a serious situation for everyone who is affected. We have not been good enough and we have made mistakes. On behalf of Hurtigruten, I am sorry for what has happened. We take our responsibility fully.

Did not follow the National Institute of Public Health's advice, may have violated the Communicable Diseases Act

Already on Wednesday, Hurtigruten was informed that a passenger had been infected with covid-19 after a trip with MS Roald Amundsen between 17 and 24 July. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) then recommended informing the passengers as soon as possible, but it took two days before the passengers received information that there had been an infection on board.

-We would have liked to have seen the passengers announced earlier. This is to limit further infection, says Line Vold, head of department at FHI.

Hurtigruten, for its part, claims that they did not know that the passengers would be notified after the first corona fall.

In total, there have been almost 400 passengers on the two cruises and large parts of Norway are affected by the outbreak. FHI, together with Tromsö municipality, has begun a major infection tracing work and urged as many as 69 municipalities to follow up the passengers who belong to their municipality.

The police must also investigate any violations of the Communicable Diseases Act. In that case, both Hurtigruten and individual crew members risk prosecution.