44 test positive on Norwegian cruise ship

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The number of people on a Norwegian cruise ship who have tested positive for the coronavirus has reached 44, authorities said.

Following the outbreak on the MS Roald Amundsen, the ship’s owner halted all cruises on Monday and Norway closed its ports to cruise ships for two weeks.

Norwegian cruise ship MS Roald Amundsen moored in Tromso, Norway, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. After 40 people, including four passengers and 26 crew members on the Norwegian cruise ship have been tested positive for the coronavirus, the operator says it was stopping for all cruises with its three vessels. The 40 people were admitted to the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromsoe, north of the Arctic Circle,  where the empty ship has docked. (Terje Pedersen/NTB Scanpix via AP)

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health said late Tuesday that 35 crew members and nine passengers had tested positive. All passengers were registered as living in Norway. They were not identified.

The cruise line often acts as a local ferry, traveling from port to port along Norway’s west coast. Some passengers disembarked along the route and authorities fear they may have spread the virus to local communities.

In the Arctic harbor of Bodoe, neither crew nor passengers were allowed to get off the cruise ship Seadream 1 after a person from Denmark tested positive on Tuesday upon returning home. The vessel arrived early Wednesday, and tests will be carried out on the pier, the Norwegian news agency NTB said.

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