Singapore has said workers in the maritime sector will be among those prioritised to receive Covid-19 vaccinations.
The city state has already begun inoculating staff working in the healthcare sector.
It is unclear at this stage exactly who within the maritime sector will be prioritised, whether it will be migrant workers employed in Singapore’s shipyards or service providers, such as surveyors, ship pilots or vessel operators, such as crews on tugs and bunker tankers.
However, TradeWinds understands that government agencies are working through the exact details and expect to make a formal announcement shortly.
The marine sector is said to have been prioritised as part of an effort to target workers in jobs or settings where the risk of a super-spreading event is high.
Singapore’s shipyards were badly affected by the outbreak earlier this year when the virus spread rapidly among the country’s migrant workforce.
In May, Sembcorp Marine was forced to dramatically scale down its workforce due to the country’s Covid-19 circuit-breaker.
Its yard workforce went from 20,000 employees to just 850 following the implementation of the movement restrictions announced in April.
Covid-19 testing requirements
Earlier this week, Singapore said it was tightening Covid-19 testing requirements for shore-based staff after two people, including a Lloyd’s Register marine surveyor, were found to have contracted the virus.
Personnel now must be tested every seven days, instead of 14, before they are allowed to board ships for work, the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said.
On Wednesday, a coronavirus outbreak on board a bunker tanker in Singapore led to nine identified cases among its crew, according to the MPA.
The eight Indonesians and a Singaporean tested positive for Covid-19 on board the 4,700-dwt NewOcean 6 (built 2014), a vessel owned by NewOcean Oil Singapore.
Singapore health minister Gan Kim Yong said the country had secured “enough vaccines for all Singaporean’s and long-term residents”.
Only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been approved in Singapore, but Gan said it was working on approving others.
“Vaccination is an important line of defence in Singapore’s Covid-19 strategy and will be a key enabler allowing us to return to normalcy,” Gan said.
The minister said that new infections will still occur in the country from time to time despite best efforts.
“We face the continuing risk of new clusters and outbreaks, and the danger of a new wave of infections getting out of control. This will be the new normal for a long time to come,” he said.
“That is why we still need to keep up our multi-layered defence. In fact, we must further strengthen it as we continue our journey through phase three, and vaccination is a new line of defence we must put in place.”
However, Gan said he was “not at liberty to disclose the specific quantity ordered, due to commercial sensitivities and confidentiality undertakings in our advance purchase agreements with the vaccine manufacturers”.
