Hurtigruten, the Norwegian expedition cruise line, has temporarily suspended all its expedition cruises until further notice.

Included in the list of cancellations are the line’s round Britain mini cruises, scheduled for September 2020.

The cancellations happened after 40 passengers and crew tested positive for Covid-19 on board the line’s hybrid expedition ship, MS Roald Amundsen.

Four crew members were initially confirmed positive last Friday (31 July), which led to all 158 crew members being tested for the virus.

Following the tests, 32 more crew members were confirmed positive, with the ship now currently docked in Tromsø, Norway with no guests on board.

As a result of the outbreak, Hurtigruten announced the cancellation of all sailings on MS Roald Amundsen, MS Fridtjof Nansen and MS Spitsbergen until further notice.

MS Roald Amundsen was due to sail four mini-cruises around the UK this September, but these sailings have now been cancelled.

The sailings were due to depart from Portsmouth (2 September), Liverpool (7 and 17 September) and Glasgow (12 September), each lasting six days and touring the British Isles.

Hurtigruten was one of the first cruise lines to restart its operations following the industry-wide suspension of sailings caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Chief executive of Hurtigruten Daniel Skjeldam said: “The safety and well-being of our guests and crew is Hurtigruten’s number one priority. We are now focusing all available efforts in taking care of our guests and colleagues.

“We are working closely with the Norwegian National and Local Health Authorities for follow-up, information, further testing, and infection tracking.

“In light of the recent increase in new cases of COVID-19 globally, the only responsible choice is to suspend all expedition sailings until we are absolutely confident, we can carry out our operations in line with all requirements from the Authorities and with the even stricter requirements, we have set for ourselves.

Hurtigruten is currently in the process of reaching out to and informing guests booked on the now cancelled voyages.

The next available British Isles cruise listed on the Hurtigruten website will set sail in April 2021.

The 400 passengers from the two cruises aboard MS Roald Amundsen late last month are now required to go into quarantine.