At least 41 passengers and crew on a Norwegian cruise ship have tested positive for Covid-19, officials say.

Hundreds more passengers who travelled on the MS Roald Amundsen are in quarantine and awaiting test results, the company that owns the ship said. The ship, which belongs to the Norwegian firm Hurtigruten, docked in the port of Tromso in northern Norway on Friday. Hurtigruten has halted all leisure cruises because of the outbreak.

“This is a serious situation for everyone involved. We have not been good enough and we have made mistakes,” Chief Executive Daniel Skjeldamsaid in a statement on Monday. “A preliminary evaluation shows a breakdown in several of our internal procedures,” he added. “The only responsible choice is to suspend all expedition sailings.” 

Norway’s government has announced it will stop all cruise ships with more than 100 people on board from disembarking passengers for at least 14 days. And police said they were investigating whether any laws had been broken prior to the outbreak on the Roald Amundsen. “We have found grounds to open a case,” a police official told Reuters news agency.(BBC)…[+]