Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in India, Fujairah has become the latest port to ban crew changes from ships arriving from the country, with effect from 26 April.
India is currently 4th on the list with the most COVID-19 fatalities globally (over 197,000), following US, Brazil, and Mexico, while the country has been facing an unprecedented healthcare crisis in the last weeks, with lack of medical supplies, oxygen shortages and insufficient hospitalizations.
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As such, with immediate effect, if a vessel’s last port of call is India, the signing-off crew are not allowed to disembark at Fujairah, UAE, said shipping agent GAC citing information provided by Fujairah Immigration. This applies to all nationals.
In addition, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Immigration has announced refusal of entry to foreigners who have a history of travel from India within 14 days before entering Indonesian territory. This is in effect from 24 April.
Meanwhile, South Korea has also added India to its list of COVID-19 High-Risk countries on 24 April. That list now contains: France, Philippines, United Kingdom, South Africa, Russia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India.
As per the quarantine regulations, a negative COVID-19 certificate must be submitted for all personnel onboard arriving at Korean ports, GAC reported.