China will open up 10 ports for foreign crew change, while it will also implement a circuit-breaker mechanism. The latter suspends crew change operations for specified periods of time.
The ten ports that China opens are the following:
- Dalian;
- Tianjin;
- Qingdao;
- Shanghai;
- Ningbo;
- Fuzhou;
- Xiamen;
- Guangzhou;
- Shenzhen;
- Haikou.
So far, the ports of Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin and Dalian have established their specific measures. Specifically, Qigdao mandates that for foreign crew members who need to stay in Qingdao port for a long period of time due to ship repair or other reasons, 14 days’ stay in port is required for landing application.
In Dalian port, shipping companies should formulate a plan for the change of foreign seafarers, which should include the following information
- The list of seafarers joining and off signing from the ship;
- Together with their nationalities, passport numbers, inbound traffic information, time of entry, port of crew change, positions to be held, time of crew change, health condition, protective measures, next port of destination, mode of transportation to the place of crew change and outbound port, outbound flight information, destination and mode of transportation, etc.
In Shanghai, shipping companies shall formulate crew change plan in advance for the crew who would disembark the vessel for repatriation due to the expiration or termination of their contracts or for humanitarian reasons only for foreign vessel which has left the previous port for more than 14 days. No crew change operation is to be arranged within 14 days between departure from the last port and arrival in China.
A quarantine circuit-breaker mechanism which works by suspending crew change operations for specified periods of time, such periods to be determined by the number of crew on board testing positive for Covid-19, has also been introduced.
If the number of positive cases detected onboard is 5, the suspension period will be 15 days, if the number of positive cases is 10, the suspension period will be 30 days and if the number of positive cases exceeds 10, the suspension period will be indefinite until a fresh assessment has been conducted by the relevant authorities.