– Both of them have been sentenced according to the charge, state prosecutor in Troms and Finnmark, Jørn Bremnes, told news. The captain has been sentenced to a fine of NOK 36,000, while the doctor has been sentenced to a fine of NOK 46,000. The court states the following about the captain: “It follows from the captain’s role as supreme leader that he has an independent investigative duty. (…) Right from 29 July there was information that clearly indicated that there could be an infection on board. Despite all the information that indicated covid-19 infection, NN chose to ignore all signals about this and only rely on the reports about “no covid-19 related issues”. As the person responsible, he did not act as a knowledgeable and considerate person would have done in a similar situation and thereby failed to comply with the obligation to notify”. About the doctor, the court writes the following: “NN is an experienced doctor, the country was in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, where the consequences of the spread of infection could be fatal. NN had time to think things over and, in the court’s opinion, it is highly reprehensible that he did not follow up the suspicion of covid-19 infection with an examination and measures to limit the infection. »It was in the summer of 2020 that more than 70 people were infected with the corona virus in connection with two cruises to Svalbard with Hurtigruten’s expedition ship MS “Roald Amundsen”. The outbreak became known far beyond Norway’s borders, and is referred to as perhaps the biggest corona scandal in Norway. Already on 21 July 2020, the first people on board MS “Roald Amundsen” were admitted to the ship’s hospital with illness, and just over a week later, on 29 July, Hurtigruten was informed that one of the passengers had been confirmed to be infected with covid-19 . However, the public was only informed about the outbreak when the ship docked in Tromsø on 31 July. By then several of the passengers had already left the boat. The corona crisis led to public laundry, but also a thorough police investigation. This winter, both the shipping company, the captain and a Norwegian doctor were therefore fined for failure to notify. Hurtigruten received a corporate penalty of NOK 1 million, the captain a fine of NOK 30,000, and the doctor a fine of NOK 40,000. Hurtigruten accepted the fine, but neither the captain nor the doctor did. The captain said in court that the information that there was a possible outbreak of infection on board never reached him. The doctor, for his part, claimed that he only had a subordinate role on the ship, and no formal responsibility for notifying of a possible outbreak of disease.
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Condemned for the outbreak of infection on Hurtigruten’s MS “Roald Amundsen” – news Troms and Finnmark
