A shipping initiative to inoculate seafarers caught in the Covid-19 crew crisis is looking to privately buy up to 1m vaccine jabs through the United Nations.
Major shipping industry bodies are making moves to acquire the vaccines via the Covax programme, which is co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Industry sources indicated that the effort is driven by an International Chamber of Shipping (ICS)-steered working group on vaccines.
The group involves the industry's largest associations, such as Intertanko, Intercargo, Intermanager and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF).
The aim is to acquire between 900,000 and 1m vaccines and distribute them as early as the second half of this year, said Alex Hadjipateras, executive vice president of shipowner Dorian LPG.
“It’s going to take time,” said Hadjipateras, who broadly described the initiative at a Slide2 Open Shipping Finance 2020 conference without providing details or identifying who is behind it.
Sources told TradeWinds that key details of the scheme — such as who pays for the vaccines, where and how they will be distributed, and liability issues — have yet to be thrashed out.
Global initiative
Covax is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to distribute Covid-19 vaccines to both high and low-income countries.
It is understood that an initial approach has been made to the WHO but the project is still in the early stages. Although a figure of 1m jabs has been mentioned, that is understood to be well in excess of what is expected to be required. The Covax approach represents just one idea currently being discussed to vaccinate the world's seafarers.
"We are exploring all avenues to ensure that seafarers are not forgotten again," said ICS secretary general Guy Platten.
"Seafarers are unique in that they need to cross boarders to do their jobs. The lack of access to vaccines is a significant issue and we are already hearing of cases where crews are being denied access to countries without proof of a vaccination.
"While some countries are well ahead of others in their vaccine roll out programmes, many nations have not even started to vaccinate their citizens. Seafarers must not be put to the back of the queue."
On 2 March, Covax announced its first round of allocations consisting of 237m AstraZeneca doses that went to 142 governments. The jabs were licensed and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
In addition to this first round of allocations, an extra distribution of 1.2m doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was announced in early February and anticipated for delivery in the first quarter of 2021.
Further allocation rounds for vaccines in the Covax portfolio will be announced in due course, the WHO said.
Covax is co-led by the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and vaccine alliance Gavi, in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, Unicef, the World Bank, and others.
Several shipping organisations, including the International Maritime Organization, have called on governments to prioritise seafarers in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, given the crucial role they play in keeping economies going.
However, very little progress seems to have been made on the ground so far.
