Marine Advisory: 08/2022 - Requirements for crew change for cargo Ships, application for vaccination and for vessels arriving in the Port of Singapore during COVID-19(This Marine Advisory supersedes Marine Advisory 31/2020)

(This Marine Advisory supersedes Marine Advisory 31/2020)

SUBJECT: Requirements for crew change for cargo Ships, application for vaccination and for vessels arriving in the Port of Singapore during COVID-19

Reference: a) Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) Port Marine Circular 03 of

2022

b) MPA Port Marine Circular 40 of 2021

Dear Shipowners/Operators/SRPS/Seafarers:

The purpose of this Marine Advisory is to provide shipowners, operators, seafarers’ recruitment and placement services (SRPS), and seafarers with the current requirements for conducting crew change for cargo ships in the Port of Singapore, applying for crew vaccination and for vessels arriving in the Port of Singapore during the Covid-19.

As Singapore moves to streamline pandemic measures to living with Covid-19 as an endemic disease, MPA has progressively revised their crew change requirements, including vaccinated /unvaccinated sign-on crew requirements, length of stay for vaccinated/unvaccinated on/off- signing crew for 5 days and 24 hours respectively at designated holding facilities, pre-departure COVID-19 tests for sign-off crew, and vaccination for signing on crew, where applicable.

Vessels arriving in the Port of Singapore are reminded of their responsibility to implement and comply with all prevailing requirements and measures of the Singapore authorities to reduce the risk of COVID19 transmission in Singapore, in particular safe management measures directly applicable to vessels in the Port of Singapore.

Requirements for crew change

The requirements for signing-on and -off crew in Singapore are as follows:

Signing-on crew

The crew and ship must fulfill the following requirements:

1. In general, sign-on crew are required to serve Stay-Home-Notice (SHN) in the crew’s originating country/region in the period1 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. Please refer to ICA’s website (https://safetravel.ica.gov.sg/wphl/SHN-and-swabsummary)for the latest list of countries/regions and them respective SHN period.
2. Fully vaccinated crew from specific countries/regions under the Vaccinated Travel Lane may sign-

on without serving SHN.

1. 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 2 days prior to departure for Singapore. Alternatively, the crew may produce a negative, professionally administered Antigen Rapid Test (ART) result taken within 2 days prior to departure from Category I/II/III/IV countries/regions.
2. 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.
3. Sign-on crew shall have MPA’s Final No Objection email prior to departure from his/her SHN location.
4. Unvaccinated crew shall only join the ship in Singapore after all high-risk shore-based personnel have completed their work on board and disembarked the ship.
5. Crew shall wear appropriate personnel protective equipment such as donning of lifejackets during sea transfer. During the entire crew change process, including during the journey to Singapore, the crew should not be in group of more than five (5) persons, and must remain in the same group.
6. Meet-and-greet services must be arranged for sign-on crew arriving at Changi Airport, to escort the crew from the moment they disembark the plane to the point where they are handed over to the agent for the direct transfer to the ship or designated holding facility.
7. Crew who are fully vaccinated and recently recovered (i.e. within 90 days of their last infection) will be exempted from all testing and SHN requirements if they are able to provide appropriate documentary proof. Non-fully vaccinated recently-recovered travelers will be exempted from predeparture testing requirements, but will still be subjected to all other prevailing border measures. See Annex A for the list of documentation and requirement.

Signing-off crew

The crew and ship must fulfill the following requirements:

1. The crew must not have gone ashore in the last 7 days before disembarking the ship, must have remained well and not had contact with any known or suspected case of COVID-19 throughout that period.
2. The crew must refrain from interacting with shore-based personnel at previous ports of call in the last 7 days.
3. The crew must be certified fit-to-travel by a doctor in Singapore not more than 24 hours before disembarking the ship. Tele-medicine can be used to obtain a fit-to-travel assessment and certification. MPA will accept fit-to- travel certificates issued by Singapore Medical Council-fully registered doctors who meets the requirements set forth by MPA.
4. Crew shall wear appropriate personnel protective equipment such as donning of lifejackets during sea transfer.
5. Crew subjected to serology test shall remain onboard until production of a negative COVID-19 serology test result.
6. During the entire crew change process the crew should not be in group of more than five (5) persons, and must remain in the same group

Requirements for Vessels Arriving in the Port of Singapore during Covid-19

1. Owners, agents, and masters of vessels arriving in the Port of Singapore must ensure that all operations (e.g., cargo operations, bunkering, ship's supplies, stores, and other marine services) are carried out contactless or contactless with segregation protocol as described below:
   1. Contactless operation means no boarding of the vessel by any person other than MPA-

licensed harbor pilots, authorized government officers, and persons approved by the Port Master of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.

• 1. Contactless operation with segregation protocol means that enhanced safe management measures must be implemented to minimize interaction between the vessel’s crew and shore-based personnel.

1. The owner, agent, or master of the vessel in port must establish and apply procedures and adequate controls to ensure the safety of shore-based personnel and the vessel's crew. Failure to comply with the requirements may result in a breach of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (Port) Regulations or the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020.
2. All vessel’s crew must comply with the following while in the Port of Singapore:
   1. Wear a mask at all times (unless the work activity requires that no mask be worn);
   2. As far as is reasonably practicable, keep a distance of at least one meter apart from each other;
   3. Take and record temperature twice daily;
   4. Observe good personal hygiene by washing hands regularly and refrain from touching face; and
   5. Maintain good hygiene in the vessel’s accommodation areas by cleaning frequently touched surfaces (e.g., desk, chart tables, dining tables, bridge/engine room consoles, door handles, handholds, switches, telephones/VHF handsets, faucets).
3. If any of the vessel crew took COVID-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test at their last port of call, the owner, master, or agent of the vessel shall ensure that the PCR test results are submitted to MPA before the vessel arrives in the Port of Singapore:
   1. If PCR tests were taken for crew change purposes, submit results to crew_change@mpa.gov.sg.
   2. If PCR tests were taken for all other purposes, submit PCR test results to pms@mpa.gov.sg.

Designated crew change holding facilities in Singapore

Unvaccinated sign-on crew and sign-off crew may stay at the designated holding facilities in Singapore for up to 24 hours. Fully vaccinated crew can stay up to 5 days.

Crew Safe Accredited Facility

1. The Singapore Shipping Tripartite Alliance Resilience Fund Taskforce (SFTF) has developed a CrewSafe audit program that endeavors to assist crew source nations to bring a higher level of confidence and quality control checks into crew change processes such as quarantine/holding, medical and swabbing facilities. Please refer to this website (https://www.ssa.org.sg/newspublications/sg-star-fund) for more information regarding the CrewSafe audit program and a list of CrewSafe accredited facilities.

1. For sign-on crew who undergo the protocol under these CrewSafe accredited facilities located overseas, his/her crew change application may be given the following concessions:

• 1. Submission of crew change application must be made at least 3 days in advance, instead of 7 days.
  2. If a sign-on crew undergoing the CrewSafe protocol is cancelled, direct replacement for this crew will be allowed if the replacement has been undergoing CrewSafe protocol for the same required duration, instead of having to re-submit a new application and re-start the process.
  3. At Singapore, sign-on crew who had undergone the CrewSafe protocol may stay at the

designated holding facilities for up to 5 days, if required.

Holding areas at Marine South Pier and West Coast Pier

1. All crew that utilise Marina South Pier (MSP) or West Coast Pier (WCP) shall remain at the designated holding areas while waiting to clear immigration. Should the holding area be full, the crew shall remain in their private transportation.
2. For sign-off crew, the private transportation shall be ready and waiting so that the crew can depart MSP/WCP immediately upon clearing immigration and do not need to crowd up the holding area.
3. Agents and appointed drivers are responsible for ensuring that the crew remain in the holding area or private vehicle at all times. At no time should the crew be loitering outside the holding area and interacting with the general public.

COVID-19 Pre-Departure Testing in Singapore

1. MPA notes that some countries require travelers to take a COVID-19 pre-departure test (PDT) and present a valid negative test result before they are allowed to transit through or enter. Similar requirements are also imposed by some airlines before allowing travelers to board their flights.
2. MPA has been facilitating COVID-19 pre-departure testing for sign-off crew in Singapore on a case-by-case basis. Please be reminded that MPA’s approval shall be sought for signing-off crew to take PDT in Singapore.
3. For crew change applications where the sign-off crew requires PDT before departing Singapore, medical service provider shall carry out the PDT onboard vessel after receiving approval from MPA. MPA approval is required before crew with PDT negative result is allowed to sign off. COVID positive crew shall isolate and recover onboard vessel, in accordance to prevailing health protocol in Singapore.

Crew Vaccination Application

Under the SEAVAX program, MPA is able to facilitate the vaccination of crew in Singapore. Ship owners/managers/agents may apply for the crew’s vaccination at the following link https://go.gov.sg/mpaicc-seavax at least 3 days prior to the vessel’s arrival in Singapore.

For crew changes to take place safely, MPA continues to expect all owners, agents, ships, and individuals to ensure that the COVID-19 preventive measures are followed strictly. Any breach will be taken seriously.

Ship owners/managers/agents must apply for crew change in Singapore via the Crew Change System (https://transact.mpa.gov.sg/Crews). The user guide for the new Crew Change System can be downloaded at this ( mpa-ccs-icc-usermanual.pdf (go.gov.sg)).

The application should be submitted at least seven (7) days before the planned crew change. For foreignflagged ships, crew change will be considered if the ship meets all prevailing requirements, and is in

Singapore for cargo operations, bunkering and/or other marine services

For more information and frequently asked questions (FAQ), refer to references a), and b), above and to: https://www.mpa.gov.sg/web/portal/home/port-of-singapore/operations/crew-change.

If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact mlc@liscr.com.

* * * * *