The Netherlands is piloting a scheme aiming to vaccinate seafarers of all nationalities that are calling at the port of Rotterdam.
The programme starts from 2 August, but is currently limited to seafarers on Dutch vessels. Later it will be expanded to all international seafarers on ships calling at the Port of Rotterdam.
Namely, 10,000 shots of the Johnson & Johnson single shot vaccine will be provided to the pilot programme and be available on a first come, first served basis.
The vaccines will be free of charge, but costs will apply for inoculation, administration and storage, according to Boers Crew Services said.
Furthermore, there will be a EUR175 registration fee per vessel and a crew handling fee of EUR55 per seafarer.
The vaccinations will take place by medical personnel either onboard ship or on a local medical clinic.
The pilot project by the Netherlands comes after Belgium which has started vaccinating all international seafarers calling at the ports Antwerp, Ghent and Zeebrugge.
Furthermore, Singapore is working on a protocol for the vaccination of international seafarers similar to its crew change protocol.
Why the fee cannot dutch governent shoulder the fee.