Skip to Content

One Of The First Cruise Ships Back At Sea Has Been Quarantined After Covid-19 Outbreak

Share The Article

Last Updated


One of the first cruise ships in the world to resume sailing has been quarantined after an outbreak onboard has sent people to hospital. 

Norwegiancruise company Hurtigruten announced late Friday that four crew members from the 535-passenger Roald Amundsen were admitted to the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsø, Norway, earlier in the day after the vessel docked in the city.

cruise ship isolated

TPG reported that all four of the hospitalized crew members had been sick for several days while on board the vessel.

All four were placed in quarantine but the line said their symptoms weren’t consistent with COVID-19.

They only tested positive for  after the ship docked in Tromsø early Friday.

cruise line restart covid

It was unclear at the time of reporting if the crew members were in hospital for quarantine or because they were very ill. 

The ship has now been quarantined, and the remaining 160 crew are being tested for COVID-19.

The line also is tracking down 177 passengers who had already left the ship early Friday to alert them of the outbreak.

crew has been quarantined on cruise ship

The next sailing for the cruise ship which was due to depart Friday has been cancelled. 

Hurtigruten has been at the forefront of efforts to restart cruising in Europe .

The line launched their reopening cruise out of Hamburg, Germany, in June on the 530-passenger Fridtjof Nansen.

It then added cruises to Svalbard on the Roald Amundsen and the 335-passenger Spitsbergen in early July according to The Points Guy.

Hurtigruten relaunched only allowing passengers from certain countries in Europe to board the ship. No American were permitted on the cruise. 

“The safety of our guests and crews is Hurtigruten’s highest priority,” Hurtigruten spokesperson Rune Thomas Ege said in a statement posted at the line’s website. “We are working closely with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Tromsø municipality, [the University Hospital of North Norway] and other resources both locally and nationally.”

cruise ship sailing on ocean

Hurtigruten had implemented a new health and safety measures on Roald Amundsen and the other ships that resumed operation.

Enhanced cleaning was added along with additional medical screenings for passengers and crew and an end to buffets.

All the vessels were operating at a sharply reduced capacity, below 50% of normal, to ensure social distancing.

For Breaking Travel Reopening News & Questions, Join Our: Facebook Community


Glenn

Saturday 1st of August 2020

This website is amazing this is not directed at you, Trevor, but as a physician, I feel like things have become so out of hand with the way things are being reported and governments and choosing to "convey" information". Because we are so hyper vigilant now, ANY symptom, is going to go reported. All this article says is crew members were "sick" - well what is sick? LOL How many people do you imagine on any actual cruise ship may come down with a minor URI/GI bug during the midst of a 7-10 day cruise that are never typically reported? I would imagine 1-5% is not an unheard number. In this case, we have no idea WHY these people went to the hospital. My guess is, they are doing just fine, and are only in the hospital because they had to determine whether or not these four people had COVID. But now all of a sudden, this is a huge deal. I'm sorry but I am sick and tired of hiding from this thing. It's time to move on people. It's a virus. It exists. It's going to be there. We can't stop it. It's one billionth our side. Time to travel and live life while we have it,

S.B.

Saturday 1st of August 2020

Glenn, I'm feeling the same way, and so is one of my closest friends who is also a physician. It is not sustainable, it is not even working (see Australia or Vietnam, where there have been full lockdowns and yet cases have only risen), and it is causing immense global problems for many according to OxFam, UNICEF, and the UN's World Health Programme. Even WHO says it's not sustainable to keep borders closed like this. It is time to live because life is short. WHO said, today, it could be decades before we stop feeling the impacts of this, and CDC says we may never eradicate it. We never closed borders over far more fatal and contagious illnesses in the past, and it really makes no sense to do so now.