Following an incident where a crew member was diagnosed with COVID-19 upon arrival in Singapore, the Singapore Shipowners Association is reiterating the importance of self-quarantine.

Facilitating crew change in Singapore has been possible with various restrictions since 22 May. Since the release of the new crew change regulation, 14 days of self-quarantine has been a requirement for all crew arriving in Singapore due to the perceived incubation period of COVID-19.

Recently, a crew member was diagnosed with COVID-19 upon arrival and the health authorities in Singapore were engaged to trace all potential contacts to mitigate a potential new outbreak.

“We cannot afford to have a second incident that may jeopardise the entire industry,” Mr. Michael Phoon, Executive Director of the Singapore Shipowners Association said in a message to the association’s members. The message was relayed to BIMCO by GAC (Singapore)

Owners, third party crew managers and sign-on crew members need to make sure the 14-days self-quarantine is observed.

BIMCO is monitoring restrictions to crew mobility and provide a variety of information on the topic to the shipping industry such as:

• Details about implementation measures
• Overview of challenges to crew mobility
• Overview of extensions and exceptions to seafarers’ certificates

In addition, BIMCO has released a crew change clause which provides owners with the contractual tools required to deviate from a voyage to perform crew change.

Source: BIMCO