COVID-19 at Dumai Sea: One Year Study on a Commerce Ship ^†

Background: Being highly contagious through person-to-person transmission, COVID-19 can easily spread within multinational populations of ships and to land communities. The purpose of this study is to report on the prevalence of COVID-19 infections in the Commerce fleet over a two year period and to discuss measures to prevent and overcome the outbreak of COVID-19 on ships. Materials and methods: All possible cases of COVID-19 among crew on six merchant vessels were registered during 2021 by onboard medical facilities. The patients remained isolated for up to 6 days after taking a PCR test. Vulnerable contacts were identified and offered post-exposure measures. The nationality of the crew, the number of contacts vaccinated, and the cost of direct treatment were noted. Results: Across the year of 2021, there were six ships with registered COVID-19 cases (132 crew), and one out of the six ships had COVID-19 cases appearing less frequently than 1 per day, consisting of a total of 12 patients. This ship sails under the flag of the Indonesian state. Of the other five ships, among the crew, 111 caught COVID-19 (85.1% of crew cases were from Indonesia, and 21 (15.9%) of were from subtropical/tropical countries, namely India). Conclusions: All ships have to deal with cases of COVID-19 or outbreaks on board every few years. Any case of COVID-19 could start an outbreak, and thus trigger time-consuming and expensive containment measures, including isolation and mass vaccination of susceptible contacts. Mandatory pre-contract proof of COVID-19 immunity from all seafarers or from subgroups, noting their position or nationality may be worth considering. In order for sailors to be immune to COVID-19, they must be able to get COVID-19 vaccinations and valid documentation when sailing.