Vaccination being made mandatory before joining ship is just one of the numerous challenges being faced by Indian seafarers as the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to overwhelm the country’s health infrastructure.
Shipowners’ recycling options have narrowed dramatically over the last two weeks as the Indian market is now virtually closed for new business and the impact of Covid-19 is increasingly evident in other recycling centres.
A resolution for a global seafarers vaccination programme proposed by Cyprus has been officially adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Ship manager association InterManager is to work privately in sourcing Covid-19 vaccines for its members seafarers frustrated that global efforts for an international programme are yet to bear fruit.
The latest Seafarer Happiness Index showed investments in connectivity and onboard resources were effective in improving seafarer happiness, and revealed a list of factors weighing on crews.
Fujairah has banned crew change from vessels arriving from India as more countries raise barriers to travellers from the country which experiencing a huge surge in Covid-19 cases.
Ship and crew managers are bracing themselves continued, and possibly even bigger, challenges with crew change as new Covid-19 variants emerge, and infections spike in key seafaring nations.
