13 New Guest Workers Infected at Stord – E24

13 new foreign guest workers are infected with corona.

This was announced by Aker Solutions Stord (formerly Kvaerner Stord) in a press release on Wednesday.

Guest workers from Poland

During routine tests on December 8 and 13, it was revealed for the first time that 12 workers from the same company were infected.

– Since all those infected were from the same company and had lived on the same barracks platform, we decided as a precautionary measure to conduct additional tests, says Aker Solutions Stord communications manager Odd Naustdal.

A total of 25 workers associated with the same shipyard subcontractor have been diagnosed with infection at weeks 50 and 51.

The workers were going to work for the Aker Solutions projects in Stord.

Transferred to isolation barracks

Since entering Norway, the guest workers have been housed in a quarantine camp, which is located four kilometers from the Aker Solutions shipyard area in Stord.

– All the infected have been transferred to their own isolation barracks, Naustdal tells BT.

It does not mean what company it is, but it confirms that the company is engaged in recruiting foreign labor from Poland, which the company does not find in Norway.

Quarantined since arrival

All guest foreign workers must be quarantined for 10 days upon arrival and take a negative test before traveling to Norway.

They then have to take two more negative tests during the quarantine period before they can go to work at Stord’s yard.

– The staff of this company have been in quarantine since their arrival and have not had close contact with the locals or employees of other companies, Naustdal tells BT.

Be sent home

Guest workers who have lived on the same platform as the barracks but tested negative are now returned to their home country by charter transport.

– They are defined as close contacts, says Naustdal.

– Do you know something about the reason why so many get infected from the same company?

– We will investigate this in more detail in collaboration with the municipal health service and, among other things, will conduct interviews with workers, says Naustdal.

During the fall, Aker Solutions had around 500 foreign guest workers.

There have been no cases of transmission of these infections to the local population, Naustdal notes.

Fined after breach of quarantine

BT visited the quarantine camp for foreign workers in Stord in mid-November.

Then Ariel Koziol from Poland recounted how he had taken a total of 12 crown tests in order to go to work in Norway.

– Many ask if it is not boring, but the truth is that we are very involved in this mentally before coming here. We just have to live with it, Koziol told BT at the time.

On the same day, three foreign workers broke the quarantine and went to a nightclub in Leirvik.

The three British workers were discovered by a police patrol on their way back to the barracks platform and were fined 20,000 crowns each.

After the quarantine, the three men were not allowed to work for Aker Solutions in Stord.