Ports and Logistics

New Zealand considering making vaccinations mandatory for port workers

The New Zealand government is mulling making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for the nation’s port workers, a frontline workforce where take-up of doses has been comparatively low to date.

Interviewed by a local radio station, David Parker, New Zealand’s oceans and fisheries minister, said the government is considering if “higher levels of compulsion” are needed to ensure port workers get vaccinated.

Parker said he was not content that only 45% of port workers had been jabbed so far.

“We are considering if there should be higher levels of compulsion or mandatory vaccinations for some people who are most at work, at the ports,” Parker said.

Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins yesterday said he was “not even close” to being satisfied with the rate of port worker vaccination.

“The port workers have the highest unvaccinated rate for our border workforce, that is something I am concerned about,” Hipkins said.

Two foreign seafarers tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Auckland earlier this week. Three close contacts of the mariners were identified — a minibus driver, a port pilot, and a customs officer.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.

Comments

  1. Does your psychiatrist know you are posting shite on line? Lies and loony conspiracy theories, paranoid garbage?
    ” The PM said last year that all port workers would be vaccinated, and as usual with her, it’s lie after lie after lie” Do you know what irony and hypocrisy are.
    I would answer your points but “The moment you start arguing with an ignorant fool, you have already lost. — Ali Ibn Abi Talib”
    Bless. you need to take your medication.

    1. “The moment you start arguing with an ignorant fool, you have already lost.

  2. Haha the Kiwi government are the most clueless fools in history. Everything they touch is a disaster. This port worker vaccination nonsense is just more of the same.

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