China’s Ministry of Transport has announced a decision to suspend the crew change operations for all the vessels of two shipmanagers due to group coronavirus infections on vessels managed by the companies.
Chinese health authorities have found 15 crewmembers onboard the 2006-built panamax bulker Omicron Sky and 21 crewmembers onboard the 2011-built panamax bulker Asia Spring infected with coronavirus during port inspections.
The two vessels are managed by Omicron Ship Management and Dia Yuan International Shipping respectively.
According to China’s latest crew change policy, authorities have suspended crew change for all the vessels managed by the two companies for 30 days due to their incompetency in epidemic control. The decision will be re-evaluated by authorities before they are granted permission for future crew changes.
A list provided by the Ministry of Transport shows that Omicron Ship Management manages six vessels and Dia Yuan manages 17 vessels.
