With current COVID cases across Europe again on the rise, and with COVID cases on board continuing to present operational problems for shipowners, we would like to alert our Members to the fact that a number of countries offer vaccination programmes for seafarers regardless of nationality.
While we appreciate that in most cases Members will have their crewmembers already vaccinated, the availability of vaccins might be useful in particular where crew have to be replaced on short notice, with vaccination of replacement crew on site, or where unvaccinated crew have to be disembarked and/or repatriated, requiring local authorities’ permission for offboarding and/or onward travelling.
Members must be aware of the legal implications of vaccinating their crew. In this respect the International Chamber of Shipping has prepared a very useful guide titled: “COVID-19: Legal, Liability and Insurance Issues arising from Vaccination of Seafarers in consultation with various industry bodies including the International Group of P&I Clubs” which can be downloaded by following the link below:
Members who would like to make use of existing programmes, and require information on availability in a particular port of call, are invited to contact us at claims@nnpc.nl.