Monday - August 03, 2020

Kung Flu Messing With The Arctic Countries

Hey, I’m trying. But other than the ‘rona, their isn’t much on the news except rioters, kneelers, and BLM extortionists.

So I’ll touch on this lightly, but you can follow the links or search up as much as you want to read. Maybe I can work a Lead Zep pun in here ...

Once around the top of the world, ‘rona ‘rona everywhere ...

•  Murmansk region counts more Covid-19 cases than neighboring Norway or Finland 1 in 75 people there are infected. Hospital conditions are ... totally soviet.


    • Speaking of Soviet conditions ... The new nickle refinery in Monchegorsk dumped such a toxic cloud the other day that the trees are dying. Agent Orange is part of the refining practice? Smog was thick with sulfur dioxide and heavy metals.


•   Iceland going back into lockdown “Iceland on Thursday reinstated restrictions on public gatherings after finding at least two new infection clusters”


•  Greenland doing pretty well so far. Yeah, well, sure. The giant island is mostly covered with glacier, hardly anybody lives there, and they’re just now getting around to re-opening. And there are no cruise ships coming, or much tourism. Interestingly, Greenland is so remote and so sparsely populated that COVID tests have to be flown out to Denmark for processing.


•  Is It The Eskimo’s Turn Now? New mine worker at Baffin Island west of Greenland, shows up with COVID. Here we go! This is the first case in that whole gigantic nearly empty frozen province of northern Canada. The indigenous residents have their own version of lockdown: none of them are working at the mine or coming anywhere near it. The whole place is staffed by “foreigners” right now.


•  Pretty quiet in Nome. Except ... No tourism, not much fishing going on up over in Nome Alaska. However, the COVID is there (465 cases in Alaska) and it’s lurking ... literally by the shipload:

American Seafoods Company is reporting that additional crew members of the American Triumph tested positive for COVID-19 in Unalaska. American Seafoods tested and screened the 119-person crew after six reported COVID-19 symptoms and tested positive. In total, there are 79 newly positive crew members.

We are relocating the crew to Anchorage to isolate and quarantine. American Seafoods will support the crew members however we can, providing quarantine facilities, daily meals, and accessible onsite medical care. We will sanitize the vessel during this time.

Three of American Seafood’s ships have been infected so far, regardless of quarantining, hygiene, or cleaning. Maybe they should put masks on the fish or something.


•  Speaking of shiploads ... Meanwhile back in Norway, the really big news from Way Up North Today: Hurtigruten cruise ship parked after onboard outbreak

Hurtigruten’s Amundsen: no more Svalbard, goes to Tromsø [ I’m visualizing the Muppet’s Swedish Chef doing the news ]

The M/S Roald Amundsen arrived in Tromsø on Friday with two ill and isolated crew members onboard. The two were hospitalized and tested for coronavirus. The rest of the 158-person crew were tested and on Saturday the cruise liner confirmed at least 35 of the crew are infected by the virus.

Crew members who tested positive and are still on the ship, are not sick or have any other symptoms. The passengers disembarked Friday morning before the outbreak was announced.

Local newspaper Nordlys reported Friday evening four crew members have tested positive. All four are hospitalized in Tromsø. Passengers that disembarked in Tromsø told Norwegian media that they first were informed about the outbreak when reading online newspapers. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health all passengers quarantined and tested for COVID-19 and is urging 69 municipalities to follow up on a total of 400 people in some way associated with infected crew members.

The MS Roald Amundsen arrived at Tromsø after a voyage to Svalbard that started July 24 with 177 passengers. The ship is one of very few that have sailed the waters around the Norwegian archipelago this summer. The ship did not dock in any settlements in the Arctic archipelago.

“A preliminary evaluation shows a breakdown in several of our internal procedures,” Chief Executive Daniel Skjeldam said in a statement.

“Our own failure, as well as the recent rise in infections internationally, has led us to halt all expedition cruises in Norwegian and international waters,” he said.

Four crew members on the MS Roald Amundsen were hospitalised on Friday when the ship arrived at the port of Tromsoe, and later diagnosed with the respiratory illness. Tests showed another 32 of the 158 staff were also infected.

Among the infected crew, 32 were from the Philippines while the rest were of Norwegian, French and German nationality.

While foreign crew members were tested for the coronavirus before leaving their home countries, they were not tested in Norway and did not quarantine before starting work on the ship, the company said.

So far, four of the combined 387 passengers travelling on the ship on two separate cruises since July 17 have been found to carry the virus

All 160 crew members on the Roald Amundsen have been quarantined on the ship, while the 177 passengers — all of whom have already disembarked — are being contacted by telephone and are being told to self-isolate, operator Hurtigruten said.

“By the time we were notified, the passengers had left the ship,” Tromsø municipality chief doctor Kathrine Kristoffersen told a news conference. “All passengers will, for the time being, be asked to quarantine.”
...
The ship’s operator and owner, Hurtigruten, which in March suspended most operations due to the pandemic, announced on July 7 it would gradually return all but two of its 16 vessels to service by the end of September, albeit with reduced capacity.

I know the cruise ship industry is trying to survive, but it seems every time a bunch of folks go out in a boat for a few days ... wham. Whether it’s lack of social distancing, the recycled air in the small space that is any size ship, crappy and slow testing, or just a ton of turd worlders working the cruise ships and fishing boats, I don’t have the answer. But you won’t see me on any boat, or any airplane either, for a long long time.

There’s no escape. Even way up north in the big frozen empty, any time a few dozen folks get together - civilization, right? - some of them get the ‘rona. Everyone in the world will get this, has it already, or has had it at least once so far. There’s no vaccine, no quick cure, no officially approved mitigating treatment. Some are immune, some have no symptoms, some few get very sick for a long time, and some of them die. No rhyme or reason, and nowhere to hide. May as well take your chances, roll the dice with God, and get it over with. Meanwhile, go live life to the fullest, if your local authorities allow you to.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/03/2020 at 10:39 AM   
Filed Under: • pandemic and epidemic diseases •  
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