Two crew members are in intensive care in a French hospital after an outbreak of Covid-19 on a State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (Socar) tanker.
The 14,400-dwt FMT Bergama (built 2009) has been in quarantine since 8 May after 12 seafarers tested positive at Port-la-Nouvelle.
The vessel had arrived from Terneuzen in the Netherlands, having left on 28 April.
The master had notified authorities of possible cases of Covid-19 while off the French coast.
Four crew members have been hospitalised in total.
The Aude prefecture and the Occitanie Regional Health Agency said in a press release that "all 18 members on board were tested for Covid-19 by a team from the Narbonne hospital centre".
14 still on board
The 14 seafarers still on board have been placed in isolation.
Socar has been contacted for further information.
The latest wave of coronavirus is proving much more dangerous to seafarers than earlier stages of the disease.
In April, the body of a crew member was found on a beach in Vanuatu.
The seafarer from BW Epic Kosan's 3,678-cbm LPG carrier Inge Kosan (built 2011) was later found to have Covid-19, but a cause of death has not been established.
Earlier that month, a Greek bulker was quarantined in Crete after a crewman was found dead in his cabin, while 10 others later tested positive for Covid-19.
The seafarer was discovered on the 182,000-dwt Heroic (built 2010), owned by CM Lemos company Nereus Shipping, Greece's Hellenic Coast Guard said.
And two seafarers died as Brazil's dire Covid-19 emergency spread to three vessels.
