• Mariners Can Now Get Covid-19 Vaccines at Port After Months Stranded at

    From David P@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 10 02:30:05 2021
    Mariners Can Now Get Covid-19 Vaccines at Port After Months
    Stranded at Sea
    By Vipal Monga, 11/1/21, Wall St. Journal

    Iluminado Jagonos Jr., the 51-year-old captain of the
    JP Azure, a bulk carrier shipping coal from Vancouver to
    Boryeong, South Korea, has been stuck on ship 3 months
    longer than his 8-month contract, unable to return to his
    family in the Philippines without a vaccine certificate.

    Capt. Jagonos heard about Vancouver’s program, & in October
    his ship pulled into port & healthcare workers from
    Vancouver Coastal Health came aboard offering Pfizer shots
    to the crew of 20. As the captain received his first dose,
    he led his crew in a cheer to celebrate. “You feel
    invincible when you have the vaccine,” said Capt. Jagonos.

    According to the Int'l Chamber of Shipping, a trade group,
    over half of the world’s 1.7 million seafarers come from
    developing nations like the Philippines, Indonesia &
    India, which have lagged behind in vaccinating citizens.

    Once unvaccinated mariners board a ship, they find they
    can’t take shore leave because of local rules that keep
    unvaccinated people out, or because their captain & shipowner
    doesn’t want to risk them contracting Covid-19 & bringing
    it back with them. That leaves the workers stranded aboard
    floating steel islands with no reprieve.

    “People are sad. We lost the enjoyment of the seaman’s
    life,” said Daresh Villarayan, 49, a motorman on the
    chemical tanker, MT Peterpaul. He hasn’t left the boat
    once since he stepped aboard over 7 months ago.
    “We don’t have freedom. It is the same as jail,” he said.

    The ship is en route from Changzhou, China, to the
    United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah.

    “It places an enormous strain on the crew,” said Peter
    Lahay, a coordinator for the International Transport
    Workers Federation, a global trade union.

    The industry is also advocating for vaccines, since the
    economic impact of an outbreak can be severe. A Covid-19
    infection aboard a ship or at a port can quickly ripple
    across the global supply chain.

    In August, a Covid infection caused the shutdown of a
    key terminal for shipments to Europe and North America at
    the Ningbo-Zhousan port in China. The congestion it
    created spread to Shanghai and Hong Kong as other ports
    struggled to ease the backlog.

    In July, a suspected Covid infection aboard the MSC Ines
    container ship forced the closure of one of three docking
    berths at the Port of Vancouver, said Bonnie Gee, VP of
    the Chamber of Shipping, a Canadian shipping industry
    group. The quarantined ship remained at the berth for
    roughly two weeks, reducing traffic by 1/3 at the biggest
    container terminal in Canada’s busiest port.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/mariners-can-now-get-covid-19-vaccines-at-port-after-months-stranded-at-sea-11635759001

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