Specialist
travel management company ATPI Marine & Energy says seafarers should be vaccinated
as high-priority critical workers.
Some
countries, such as Cyprus, the Netherlands, the Philippines and India, have
begun to vaccinate all seafarers on flag-registered ships, and all seafarers
who make a crew change in their respective countries. However, the TMC said
that a seafarer vaccination programme requires the support of globally aligned
governments, and not just individual flag states.
Nikos
Gazelidis, chief commercial officer at ATPI’s Marine Division, said: “At the moment travel
restrictions are based around quarantines and testing, however the time is
coming when they will revolve around vaccination status. Today, on the IMO’s
Day of the Seafarer, it is important that we look to the future and set in
place plans to avoid unnecessary challenges.
“Each seafaring nation has different
priorities when it comes to handling the pandemic, and vaccination programme
timelines are not the same. However, ships need to continue to move around the
world. To avoid future shortages of goods and services, and to protect the
wellbeing of these essential workers, seafarers must be vaccinated as a
globally-coordinated priority.”