Virus Forces Unit of Norway’s Biggest Bank to Send Staff Home

(Bloomberg) -- A unit of Norway’s biggest bank, DNB ASA, has sent its staff home after an employee contracted the coronavirus.

The decision affects DNB’s life-insurance unit in the city of Bergen on Norway’s western coast, DNB said on Monday.

The employee infected with the virus is only showing “mild symptoms,” DNB spokesman Even Westerveld said by email. The worker’s entire department of roughly 40 people is now working from home, while other staff members in a “fragile” state of health have also been sent home, he said.

The measures, which were first reported by local newspaper Bergens Tidende, won’t disrupt the bank’s business, according to DNB.

A total of 19 people have been infected by the coronavirus in Norway, according to the latest tally from authorities. Six of them were registered in Bergen.

--With assistance from Laura Benitez.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonas Cho Walsgard in Oslo at jchowalsgard@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mikael Holter at mholter2@bloomberg.net, Tasneem Hanfi Brögger

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