– It was said that if we wrote that the infection came from Hurtigruten and it was not true, there would be financial consequences for which someone would have to be held responsible. Here I realized that there was no point in discussing any more. I didn’t have enough weight. This was explained by former infection control doctor in Hadsel, Martin Larsen Drageset, during the trial in Nord-Troms and Senja district court on Tuesday. As the only individuals after the corona outbreak on MS “Roald Amundsen” in the summer of 2020, the captain and the ship’s doctor have been fined. The police believe they had a responsibility to notify about possible infection. They refuse to pay, and therefore a trial is now underway in Nord-Troms and Senja District Court. When did Hurtigruten’s top managers receive information that there was an outbreak of infection? When should they themselves have ensured that the passengers were notified? Martin Larsen Drageset testified in court on Tuesday, and described the hectic hours before Hadsel municipality sent out a press release about covid-19 infection. Here the company was not mentioned in a single word. And about pressure from Hurtigruten, if he mentioned the company. Security chief Roy Pedersen in the management believed that MS Roald Amundsen had no sick people on board. – I didn’t want to end up in a conflict, nor did I have the authority to notify the patients myself. I told FHI that “I cannot impose notification, you can. I ask that you discuss it among yourselves”, says Drageset. Investigation report cracks After two days in court where the captain, the ship’s doctor on the first and second voyages and the infection control doctor in Hadsel have explained themselves, the conclusions in Hurtigruten’s own investigation report are beginning to crack. In the investigation report, Hurtigruten’s management put the responsibility on employees further down the system for passengers and the municipality not being notified of infection on board the cruise ship “Roald Amundsen”. On Monday, we heard that one of those who were blamed for the fact that passengers and the municipality were not notified, was actually the person who notified of possible infection on board already on 22 July, and who wanted testing of the crew. In the e-mail that both Bent Martini, Rune Thomas Ege and Roy Pedersen received a copy of, it said “red flag here unfortunately! Must be allowed to take a test”. Former Minister of Health and Care Bent Høie has reacted strongly to the fact that Hurtigruten tried to keep the infection a secret from the public. We heard from the prosecutor that there were daily reports about the state of health of the captain. There was a medical report about crew with fever, cough, chills, headache and pain down the back. Nevertheless, Hurtigruten believed that they had no sick people on board. On Monday, we also heard from the captain that both communications manager Rune Thomas Ege, security manager Roy Pedersen and operations director Bent Martini received information on 29 July about the municipal superintendent in Hadsel’s notification of infection. 29 July 14:45 The captain: Hello. Stokmarkne’s medical office will go out with corona infection at RA. One guest was infected two days after returning home. Will talk to Bent (Martini, jour.adm) here on board. 29. July 16:20 RERune Thomas Ege: Have heard. Is in dialogue with Bent (Martini), Roy (Pedersen) and Ola (Sandman). We will take control! It emerged that the municipal superintendent, in his communication with the captain, was aware that the person from Hadsel was most likely infected on board the MS “Roald Amundsen”, and that the passengers had to be notified. Alerted all the health summits: An e-mail from FHI repeated several times that there was a “probability” of infection on board and that the infection “highly likely” originated from an unknown source on “Roald Amundsen”. “Thus, several of the passengers may be exposed,” the warning said. Photo: Montage / Lisa Rypeng / news Stopped by the communications department Both the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) and the doctor in Hadsel at this time handled the case of infection as an ongoing crisis. FHI determined that the infection must have occurred on Hurtigruten. In an e-mail, they wrote that both the doctor and the captain were positive about releasing information about infection on board. But a communications adviser would not have been as positive, FHI wrote. In an e-mail from the infectious disease specialist in Hadsel municipality to the Institute of Public Health, it is written, among other things, that Hurtigruten does not want it to come out. news has made the highlights. Photo: TERJE PEDERSEN/NTB SCANPIX/news/MONTASJE In the e-mail that news has seen, the infection control doctor in Hadsel writes: “The captain and the doctor (on the first voyage) were quite positive about going out with information. It wasn’t the communications advisor. We have therefore chosen to tone down this element very much.” As a consequence, FHI left the notification to Hurtigruten. At this time, it was Asta Lassesen in the senior management team who had the ultimate responsibility for communication. The ship’s doctor on the first voyage has previously told news that he too had communicated to top management the wish to notify. He explained in court on Tuesday that security chief Roy Pedersen was positive about this, but that he wanted to confer with the same Lassesen in the top management group first. – I realized the next day that no information had gone out to the patients, I was annoyed by that. I was annoyed at Hurtigruten, because they had withheld information, said the ship’s doctor in the witness box. When asked by prosecutor Jørn Bremnes why Lassesen himself has not been investigated, he replies: – There were three other individuals who had suspect status during the police investigation, but for these three the cases have been dropped due to the state of the evidence. These three were ship’s doctor on the first voyage, operations director Bent Martini and managing director Daniel Skjeldam. – Has taken responsibility Hurtigruten, by communications manager Rune Thomas Ege tells news that they believe it is not right to comment on individual matters that come to light in the court case. – The police carried out a very thorough and comprehensive investigation over a period of almost two years, to which we actively contributed. The police’s investigation concluded that there is no basis for criticizing the company beyond what was the basis for the submission we received last winter. – We have been clear that we as a company made several mistakes. We have taken responsibility for that, and we have accepted the submission we were made, writes Ege in an e-mail. In an additional comment from Hurtigruten, which focuses specifically on this article, press officer Øystein Knoph writes: “The company is not a party to the lawsuit. Therefore, it is not right for us to comment on individual circumstances of the trial. All the elements that news is asking questions about have been thoroughly discussed, discussed and covered by the media in the past, for example in connection with the external investigation report that was published and posted openly in autumn 2020. The police have also carried out a very thorough and comprehensive investigation over a period of almost two year. We as a company were punished with a fine of one million, which we have adopted.” Communications manager at Hurtigruten, Rune Thomas Ege, says the company has received its punishment, and that they are not going into individual matters now. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB Sending possible infected people out into society MS “Roald Amundsen” arrived at the port in Tromsø on Friday 31 July 2020. The ship had then been on a one-week cruise around Svalbard. Later it turned out that many, both crew and passengers, were infected by corona. The passengers were allowed to disembark as planned. The outbreak was a very demanding situation for health personnel and employees in Tromsø municipality. The outbreak affected 69 municipalities and caused the government to tighten the rules for the entire cruise industry. Later it became known that 71 people from 7 different counties were infected. news has revealed that the top management knew about the outbreak as early as March and lied to the authorities to get a sailing permit. Hurtigruten had 19 sick people in isolation when “Fridtjof Nansen” came home to Norway in March. This is the voyage where passengers have later claimed to have been infected by the coronavirus on board. Hurtigruten has believed that it is impossible to determine where they have been infected.
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– Would have financial consequences – news Troms and Finnmark
