More attention placed on seafarers’ inoculation as per the latest Neptune Crew Change Indicator
The latest COVID-19 variant sent some speed bumps to crew change as reflected in February 2022’s indicator. On the flip side, the aggregate percentage of seafarers from the sample who have been vaccinated had risen from 59.8 in January 2022 to 66.8 per cent in February.
Vaccination remains a priority
With the Omicron posing more challenges to the seafarers, the industry has once again proven itself to be gradually putting crew’s welfare in the forefront. This is in spite of varying vaccine issues across the globe. The February Indicator also showed that the aggregate percentage of seafarers from the sample who had been vaccinated rose from 59.8 per cent in January 2022 to 66.8 in February.
In comparison, the share of the population fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in several large shipping nations in Europe, North America and Asia is close to or above 70 per cent. The gap between vaccinated seafarers and seafaring nations is closing though some countries stagnating. Seafarer vaccination rates nonetheless are continually increasing month-on-month.
The good news of 66.8 per cent of seafarers (from the sample) being vaccinated translates to an increase of 7 percentage points since January 2022. The data shows that seafarer vaccinations are progressing with inoculation programmes established in numerous countries to offer shots to international seafarers.
The share of fully-inoculated seafarer population in the European Union is 70 per cent, Hong Kong with 63, Japan with 79, Singapore at 87, the United Kingdom at 71 and the United States at 63 per cent. It is clear the industry recognises the importance of seafarer vaccination for smoother operations despite challenges from the Omicron, and is looking forward to pleasing numbers in the near future.
Crewing Online News Team
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