COVID-19 testing for arriving crew

24 Jul 2020 / Hong Kong

The following new procedure has been implemented for crew members arriving in Hong Kong to sign on to a vessel.

  1. When sea crews arrive at Hong Kong to sign-on to a vessel, point-to-point transfers should be arranged by the shipping companies/agents for crew members to and from the vessel. The driver’s information must be recorded as the Department of Health may require their contact information for contact tracing.
    Public transport, including taxis, cannot be used for point-to-point transport of crews.

  2. All signing-on crew members arriving from Hong Kong International Airport must have a negative result of SARS-CoV-2 nuclei acid test at their last place of embarkation within 48 hours prior to their departure. The test shall be performed by an ISO 15189-accredited laboratory or a laboratory recognised by the Government where laboratory is located.

  3. The shipping company/agent must declare in the guarantee letter to be submitted to the Immigration Department that the crew member(s) concerned has/have been tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid within 48 hours prior to their time of departure from the place of embarkation in an ISO 15189-accredited laboratory or a laboratory recognised by the Government where the laboratory is located.

  4. The crew must present the test report and guarantee letter to staff of Department of Health (DH) when they enters Hong Kong. At least one copy of guarantee letter should be prepared to be carried by each crew when arriving Hong Kong for submission to DH staff.

  5. Crew members who do not possess negative test results will be denied entry, and the shipping company/agent concerned must arrange to fly them back to their originating country(ies) forthwith.

  6. All sea crew must proceed to DH's Temporary Specimen Collection Centre at the AsiaWorld-Expo to have their deep throat saliva samples collected upon arrival at the Hong Kong International Airport. An emergency local contact phone number must be provided in the guarantee letter for prompt contact in an emergency.

For further details and updates, as well as information about operations in Hong Kong, contact GAC Hong Kong at [email protected]

If quoting any content from Hot Port News, please cite GAC Hot Port News as the source.

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