Crew Member Aboard Viking Star Tests Positive for COVID-19

A crew member aboard the Viking Star (right) reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 according to the NRK newspaper in Norway. The newspaper states that it “is unclear where the person became infected.” The person in question took a test, which was negative, in his home country before leaving for Norway.  The crew member joined the cruise ship on July 17th and was then quarantined in his cabin for 14 days. After ten days on board the cruise ship, the person was tested again for corona which was also negative. The employee then started work. When he started to feel bad, he was ordered to take another test, which showed that he is infected with covid-19. The person was tested on board and now is isolated in his cabin. There are 105 crew members on the ship, which has not yetresumed operations. All 105 on board the boat must now be tested for the virus.

Guest on SeaDream 1 Tests Positive – Over 100 Passengers & Crew Quarantined

A guest aboard the SeaDream 1 (top) tested positive for COVID-19 resulting in all of the remaining passengers being quarantined on this ship which is operating near Norway.

Over one-hundred passengers on the SeaDream 1 have been ordered to stay in their cabins after a guest on the previous cruise tested positive for COVID-19 after returning home to Denmark, according to the Aftenposten and VG newspaper in Norway. The newspaper spoke to one of the 123 passengers on board the current cruise who stated that the ship left Tromsø two days ago. “After we were ashore in Henningsvær early yesterday, we were told that we will not go ashore anymore. Then we anchored up in Nusfjord, before we came here to Reine.” Local hospitals are making arrangements to test the 85 crew members for COVID-19 on the ship.

The local municipality, Bodø, is not permitting the crew or passengers to go ashore, according to the mayor.  Local and national official in Norway are taking the situation seriously. At a press conference last Friday, the national minister of health said that the government of Norway is tightening the rules for cruise ships, so that passengers on ships with more than 100 people on board are no longer allowed to go ashore. This order was entered after the COVID-19 debacle with the Hurtigruten expedition ship, the M/S/ Roald Amundsen, where 36 crew members and at least 8 guests tested positive. The guests were among the 387 passengers on the last two cruises on the contaminated ship. The last group of 176 passengers were permitted to disembark the ship in Tromsø after a guest and 4 crew members of the 158 ship employees on the ship initially tested positive for COVID-19. 32 additional employees tested positive. More positive test results for the guests are expected.

COVID-19 Positive Crew Members Cases on Costa Cruises, AIDA and TUI Group/Mein Schiff Cruise Ships

As we previously reported, in the last two weeks ten crew members employed by AIDA Cruises tested positive for COVID-19 and five crew members working for TUI / Mein Schiff tested positive which required the cancelation of a cruise on the Mein Schiff 1. Three Costa crew members on the Costa Favolosa and Costa Deliziosa tested positive this last weekend.

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Photo Credit: Viking Star – Pjotr Mahhonin – CC BY-SA 4.0, commons / wikimedia; SeaDream 1- Halvard Alvik, NTB scanpix via Aftenposten; Hurtigruten’s M/S/ Roald Amundsen – VG