The Shanghai government has eased the crew change ban by releasing a new guidance for managing crew shift issues at Shanghai Port.
Under the new guidance, shipping companies are required to report the past itinerary of ships that will berth at Shanghai Port and Chinese crew are allowed to go ashore with the exception of those who have been to the 24 countries identified by Chinese customs as seriously affected by the coronavirus pandemic 14 days before arriving at Shanghai.
The 24 countries are Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan, France, Spain, Germany, United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Australia, Malaysia, Greece, Czech Republic, Finland, Qatar, Canada and Saudi Arabia.
Shipping companies or their agencies are responsible to send the crew who have been to those 24 countries to quarantine sites to complete a 14-days quarantine before they are allowed to go home. Foreign crew are still not allowed to do work shifts at Chinese ports.
According to China’s Maritime Safety Administration (MSA), around 10,000 Chinese crew need to go ashore from now through to the end of May.
