MPA Singapore: Crew change requirements for cargo ships

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA Singapore) issued an update concerning the requirements on crew change for cargo ships in the port of Singapore.

MPA Singapore will keep in mind the following:

• crew whose employment contract has expired;
• additional crew on board whose sign-off would not affect the safe manning of the ship;
• change of crew due to the sale or purchase of ship;
• personnel who are not part of the ship’s crew such as superintendents and service engineers;
• compassionate grounds e.g. death of family member;
• the crew is no longer medically fit to work onboard the ship.

The requirements for the sign-on are:

1. All signing-on crew are required to serve 14-day Stay-HomeNotice (SHN) in the crew’s originating country/region in the period immediately prior to his/her departure flight/ferry to Singapore. The crew should be completely isolated in a room with a dedicated toilet with strictly no interaction with others (including family members) at his/her place of residence, or serve the SHN in a dedicated facility/hotel.
2. Crew from specific low risk countries/regions will either no longer be required to serve the SHN or serve a shorter SHN of 7 days in his/her
   originating country/region prior to departure for Singapore.
3. The crew must have a negative result from a COVID-19 test (polymerase chain reaction (PCR) type) taken at a government-approved or ISO 15189- accredited testing facility at his/her originating country not more than 72 hours prior to departure for Singapore.
4. The crew must be certified fit-to-travel by a doctor at his/her originating country not more than 24 hours prior to departure for Singapore.
5. During the entire crew change process, including during the journey to Singapore, the crew should not be in a group of more than five (5) persons, and must remain in the same group. There must be no interactions between groups.
6. The crew should only join his/her ship not more than two (2) days before the  ship’s final departure from Singapore. Ships departing for sea trial and returning to Singapore is not considered final departure.
7. Crew shall only join the ship in Singapore after all high-risk1 shore-based personnel have completed their work on board and disembarked the ship.
8. Crew who have recovered from COVID-19 must submit documentary proof of his/her past diagnosis of COVID-19 based on the earliest positive PCR test result.

The requirements for the sign-off are:

1. The crew must not have gone ashore in the last 21 days before disembarking the ship, must have remained well and not had contact with any known or suspect case of COVID-19 throughout that period.
2. The crew shall refrain from interacting with shore-based personnel at previous ports of call in the last 21 days.
3. The crew must be certified fit-to-travel by a doctor in Singapore not more than 24 hours before disembarking the ship.
4. Crew subjected to serology test shall remain onboard until production of a negative COVID-19 serology test result.

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