At least 100 in quarantine in several municipalities – VG

The bus with pensioners from Sør-Rogaland became a place where corona infection spread rapidly.

Earlier this week, it became known that 33 of the 37 passengers who were in the travel party are infected, and now a new survey VG has done shows that the infected pensioners have left the coronavirus along the way at the stops as well.

At least 100 people are in quarantine, and four have been confirmed infected after close contact with infected passengers on the bus.

The 33 confirmed infected passengers are in isolation. Four passengers, the bus driver and two tour guides, who have not been diagnosed with the infection, are in quarantine.

Dozens are now waiting to be coronated or get answers to tests they have taken.

Here the bus stopped:

Two municipalities with confirmed infection

On the six-day bus trip, the tour group had thirteen longer stops.

Two of the municipalities have now tracked corona-infected residents back to the bus with the pensioners.

Kvam Herad is among the hardest hit municipalities. There are three infected, and as many as 48 people have now been quarantined.

The three confirmed infected in Kvam are employed at Thon Hotel Sandven, where the travel party lived from 20-21. September.

The hotel is now closed until 1 October. Kvam upper secondary school is also closed for a week, and a class at Norheimsund school and a department in Norheimsund kindergarten are closed until Monday. Those who can have a home office are encouraged to do so, the municipality states in one press release.

This is the status of the affected municipalities:

One in an unknown municipality

Of the four confirmed infected by the bus passengers, there is one person in one – for VG- unknown municipality.

The person in question is in close contact with one of the pensioners on the bus. This person then has close contacts in Kvinnherad, which in turn means that ten people are quarantined there.

On Thursday afternoon, Etne municipality, another stop on the bus journey, informs that 25 people have been quarantined as a result of the travel party from the bus stopping by a café on Åkrafjordtunet earlier this week, writes NRK.

Six are in quarantine in the Etne municipality itself, the rest are in surrounding municipalities, the mayor informs VG on Thursday night.

Førde in Sunnfjord municipality is another city that has now had to quarantine people after having been in contact with people from the infection bus.

Nine employees at Helse Førde are in quarantine after the hospital’s infection detection, and seven are in quarantine after the municipality’s infection detection. Responses are expected for several of the coronation tests on Friday, municipal chief physician Øystein Furnes informs VG.

Haukeland Hospital is also affected by the contact with passengers on the bus, after a passenger was admitted to the hospital.

Ten employees and four patients are now in quarantine, according to Helse Bergen.

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Six nights

The infection on the bus was discovered when a woman in her 70s developed an acute malaise during the bus trip, and was admitted to a hospital in Førde. On Monday, the news came that she had tested positive for the coronavirus.

It was on 15 September that the bus left on the six-day trip from Jæren.

The pensioners visited six accommodation establishments on the journey through Eastern Norway, Dovre and Western Norway. All places where the bus stopped have been contacted for infection tracking, says the municipal chief in Sandnes to VG on Wednesday.

VG’s conversations with all of the municipalities confirm that all the relevant stops have been informed and are in the process of infection detection work.

The stop Løten, for example, has three in quarantine, but is among the municipalities that consider it less likely that they have infected. That is because the bus stopped there early in the trip, says chief infection control doctor Ketil Egge to VG.

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– Complied with rules

It was the bus company Ingvar’s Travels, run by the couple Silje and Ingvar Landa, who arranged the trip. Silje Landa has previously referred to the entourage as a large travel family and said she is sorry that they have been infected on the trip.

– I do not know if we could have done something different, beyond maybe not traveling. We are very sorry, said Silje Landa, who is a nurse herself.

The municipal chief in Sandnes told VG on Wednesday night that the bus company has complied with current infection control rules.

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Unknown source of infection

It is still not known how the infection got on board the bus.

Line Vold at the National Institute of Public Health told VG on Wednesday that they will look at the advice and guide for buses after the bus outbreak.

VG’s collection of information from each of the municipalities where the bus stopped was done on Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th of September.