32 Filipinos among 40 crew with COVID-19 on Norway cruise ship

At least 40 passengers and crew, including 32 Filipinos, tested positive for COVID-19 on a luxury cruise ship in Norway.

Public health officials in Norway said Sunday authorities are still tracing the number of passengers from two recent Arctic voyages.

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MS Roald Amundsen arrived Friday at the port of Tromsoe were in four of its crew members were hospitalized and later tested positive for COVID-10. Further tests revealed 32 of the 158 staff also acquired the respiratory illness.

While those who got infected were quarantined inside the ship, its 178 passengers who arrived on Friday were allowed to disembark before anyone had been tested, resulting in a more difficult contact tracing to prevent the spread of the virus.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) and the Tromsoe municipality said four of the combined 387 passengers traveling on the ship on two separate cruises since July 17 had been infected with the new coronavirus.

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“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 advised to undergo self-quarantine.

“Messages have been sent to all the passengers. We’re now seeking to verify that the information has been received and understood,” FHI said when asked Sunday whether the authorities had by now traced and tested everyone potentially infected aboard the cruise liner.
Operator Hurtigruten said 32 Filipinos were among infected with COVID-19 while the rest were of Norwegian, French, and German nationality.
“We are working hard to contain this outbreak in order to limit the spread in the general population,” Tromsoe municipality chief doctor Kathrine Kristoffersen told news reporters.
The MS Roald Amundsen is set to sail around the British Isles in September, docking at ports in England and Scotland.
In June, a Filipina cruise ship worker committed suicide in Barbados while awaiting repatriation to the Philippines amid the coronavirus crisis.
The Department of Health (DOH) reported 5,032 new cases yesterday, bringing the total number of cases in the Philippines to 103, 185. Of that number, 35, 569 were active cases, 65,557 already recovered, and 2,059 died.