The intention was to make a cruise to Svalbard again after a long time. Since the number of infections was low at the beginning of July and on top of that, new, stricter measures, especially regarding quarantine, were introduced, the chance of things going wrong seemed negligible. And it is very important for the cruise sector to be able to show that it is possible to sail safely (again). The sector is completely at a standstill and dramatic losses are being incurred, while the ships float on the oceans like floating ghost towns because they have nowhere to dock and it apparently costs more to stop them than to keep the engines running. In short, a drama and understandable that people want to restart the business as soon as possible. Hurtigruten was the first company to start cruises again.

Three days before the maiden voyage with the "MS Roald Amundsen", Hurtigruten was informed that no one could go ashore if any of the crew or passengers had to undergo quarantine due to a Covid infection when boarding. At the same time, the authorities asked Hurtigruten to amend the infection control plan in light of the changes. According to the regulations that came into force on 15 July, crews or passengers are only allowed to go ashore in Norway or Svalbard if no one on board should have been in quarantine when they boarded. However, Hurtigruten allowed all passengers to go ashore after the first voyage on 24 July.

On Monday, 3 August, Hurtigruten CEO Daniel Skjeldam admitted that the company did not follow foreign crews and quarantine regulations on board well enough. This applied to 16 crew members from the Philippines. The following Wednesday it emerged that a passenger on one of Hurtigruten's ships was infected. On Friday morning, it became known that two crew members were also infected. Both the Ministry and the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH) have stated that they thought Hurtigruten would inform the passengers on Wednesday. Only on Friday did it become clear that Hurtigruten had not yet informed the passengers. Hurtigruten states that they have allowed employees to carry out the quarantine period while working on board. But that is not allowed at all. You cannot, of course, take passengers on a cruise ship with a particularly vulnerable population. Meanwhile, it appears that at least 36 employees have been infected and at least 4 passengers, who were therefore allowed to disembark without being warned, have apparently infected other people on land. Almost all of the infected employees are from the Philippines. CEO Skjeldam said on Monday that they had not followed all the measures necessary to quarantine the foreign workers on board the ship. The COO, Bent Martini, resigned after the total number of infections exceeded 60. The company and its leaders are particularly blamed for keeping the infections quiet.