Acting municipal chief physician Aleksander Linge Sommerdalen was notified on Tuesday that one person is infected with the coronavirus in Ålesund.
The person is the crew of a ship that is in storage in Ålesund. While the ship has been in storage, the crew must have been isolated on the boat. The infected person is the crew of the cruise ship «Viking Star», confirms press contact in Viking Cruises Jon Mørland.
It is unclear how the person was infected, and the 105 people on the ship will now be tested for corona. Everyone on board the ship is a crew.
– Reports from the ship indicate that they have done a very good job of preventing more infection on board. We do not suspect the spread of infection from this ship, says Sommerdalen in a press release.
Third test
Mørland in Viking Cruises says that it was the third corona test that the person took that was positive.
– The person arrived at the ship on 17 July. The person in question had tested negative in his home country before departure, and went straight into quarantine in his own cabin on the ship. After ten days in quarantine, the person tested negative for the second time, but the person was in quarantine for another four days because the shipping company operates with fourteen and not ten days quarantine, he says.
It was the third test, taken a few days ago, that came back positive.
– The person has not had any contact with either the port or the authorities. There are very strict rules, and the entire crew has completely minimized contact with the port and the authorities, says the press contact.
He emphasizes that the crew does not have the opportunity to go ashore, and that others do not have the opportunity to board the ship.
Working on organizing testing
Municipal director in Ålesund municipality, Astrid Eidsvik, says that on Tuesday night work is being done to organize testing of the 105 people on board the ship. She says that it will probably be Ålesund municipality that is responsible for the testing.
– The testing is carried out as quickly as we can organize it, she says.
When the infected person arrived at the ship on 17 July, the person in question must have arrived by plane, and then been transported directly to the ship.
– Otherwise the person should not have been ashore, says Eidsvik.
Acting municipal chief physician, Aleksander Linge Sommerdalen, also says that he works with organizing testing.
– We will probably start testing tomorrow. The challenge is that we can not do the tests at our established test stations, he says.
He does not suspect infection outside the ship.
Strict routines
Sommerdalen says that there must have been strict routines for the crew who come on board the boat.
– They sit for the first fourteen days in solitary confinement, practically in isolation. Their luggage and clothes are disinfected when they get on board the ship, he says.
Nevertheless, corona infection must have reached the ship. Now the municipal chief and the ship’s doctor must carry out infection tracking on the boat.
– It will be demanding to conduct almost detective work to find out who are any close contacts of the infected person on the boat. Much of this work is done on board, and we expect to receive updated information about this during the evening, Sommerdalen concludes.
The ship has not had guests since 15 March, and has been in storage in Ålesund since 18 May.
This is the first registered case of infection in Ålesund since 7 July. A total of 36 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Ålesund municipality.
From before, four people from Ålesund are also in quarantine after having been on a trip with the Hurtigruten ship Roald Amundsen. Two of those who took part in the first trip will be quarantined on Wednesday if the last test for the coronavirus is negative.
None of the four in quarantine have symptoms of the coronavirus.
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