Thome Offshore and Tasik Toba Subsea AS have jointly won Offshore Support Journal’s Safety award for their work in achieving the world’s first Infectious Disease Mitigation-Arrangement (IDM-A) notation by leading classification society ABS.
Achieving the IDM-A notation was the result of months of collaborative efforts between the ship manager and shipowner together with charterer Shelf Subsea, to ensure the vessel complied with detailed engineering and procedural requirements for the management of infectious diseases, including Covid-19. These arrangements are designed to prevent infectious diseases entering the vessel, to contain any disease in the event of an outbreak, and to have contingency plans in place to evacuate any serious cases for treatment.
The engineering controls included the installation of a dedicated isolation facility, modifications to the HVAC system and exhaust air routes, changing sink taps to hands free and segregating the citadel by transmission proof doors. Procedural controls included a ship-specific outbreak management plan, and strict controls on quarantining and testing for joining and departing crews.
Accepting the award at an in-person ceremony at the annual Offshore Support Journal Conference in London, Torbjørn Lie, Business Development Manager for the Thome Group said, “Becoming the first vessel in the world to achieve this infectious disease mitigation notation from ABS demonstrated a clear commitment to the safety of our crew and other stakeholders and I am really pleased that the hard work and close collaboration by both companies has been recognized with this award from OSJ.”
Also present at the ceremony was John Giddens, founder and CEO of Tasik Subsea who commented, “Winning the OSJ safety award is the icing on the cake for the teams that were involved in developing the procedures, plans and documentation needed to gain this class notation. The collaboration between Thome and Tasik has given confidence to all those interested parties that the highest possible standards of safety are being maintained, above and beyond any national and regional requirements.”
