The BIMCO Maritime Information department informs members on a weekly basis, updates about the COVID-19 in relation to implementation measures imposed by governments for sea transport including for crew change as well as from the United Nation bodies like the International Maritime Organization (IMO), World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO).
BIMCO provides the following update for this week ending Friday, 5 February 2021
IMO has issued no circulars in connection with the pandemic situation other than the ones mentioned below.
As of today, the countries that have informed the IMO of the above are: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Montenegro, Myanmar, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu
Reference: MSC.7/circ.1/Rev.22
Additional details available on our implementation page.
Via an IMO circular letter no. 4225/Add.1, the Bahamas Maritime Authority has released their latest guidance on COVID-19 measures (BMA Technical Alert No.21-01 ) and with respect to crew changes, the following should be duly noted:
Information provided by Proinde reiterates the existing travel ban from the UK and the PCR test requirement. Meanwhile the travel ban is extended to include South Africa.
According to information provided by the government of Canada, all flights are suspended from Mexico and the Carribean to Canada until 30 April, 2021.
The Croatian government informing the IMO via circular letter no. 4241/Add.5 to include their country into the list of Member states that have designated seafarers as key workers.
The Finnish government informing the IMO via a circular letter no. 4260/Add.2 of the following:
The Indian Directorate General of Shipping has issued order 8/2021, which effectively revokes the previous E-Pass requirement for foreign seafarers.
According to information provided by the Norwegian Maritime Authority, seafarers are still exempted from entry restrictions.
The Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority has issued new standard operating procedures effectively prohibiting travellers other than Pakistani citizens or residents from the following countries:
Portugal has issued Ministerial Council Resolution 1242-E/2021 dated 29 January with new precautionary measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The primary measures include:
Further details available on our implementation page
For further details on additional countries, please refer to our implementation page.
BIMCO is continuously monitoring COVID-19 restrictions and its impact on the shipping industry in particular on crew changes. Below are some of the type of information currently being provided by BIMCO :
You can also view all information on our COVID-19 landing page.
Veritas Petroleum Services (VPS) publish regular Bunker Alerts based entirely on fuel samples and have kindly permitted BIMCO’s Members to access this information.
The Bunker Alerts are not intended to be an evaluation of overall bunker quality in the port or area concerned, but usually highlight a specific parameter within the fuel which has raised a quality issue.
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