COVID-19 surveillance, testing rules set for motor vessel ships, mariners

Ships and mariners are now included among those who will be subjected to COVID-19 surveillance and testing to prevent community transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 from off-island travelers.

COVID-19 Task Force chair Warren Villagomez stated at the media briefing Monday that this action is intended to prevent any potential slip at the ports, with a focus on seaports.

“Cargo ships are much more frequent now and we want to protect the ship crew, as well as our crew on the ground who are unloading and facilitating the commodities that are being imported into CNMI,” he said. “We provided a much more detailed process [as] we don’t want to hamper operations at the port.”

Based on a memo to the Commonwealth Ports Authority, merchant marines who are traveling to Saipan through the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport will be subjected to screening and quarantine procedures.

Ships with a sole mission to unload cargo and/or refuel and depart the CNMI will not be required to register and will not be tested, provided all its personnel remain at the dock, while ships whose mission includes any planned interaction with community members must adhere to current CNMI COVID-19 requirements such as registration, testing, and quarantine.

Ship personnel, including residents, are not allowed to use boats to transit from ship to shore as the action puts CNMI residents at extremely high risk of community transmission should the resident have the COVID-19 virus, Villagomez added.

“As we see, the prepositioning ships are also very active out there and we want to make sure that when they are out there, they continue to be sterile and if they do leave the CNMI water, that when they come back, we are aware and we go through the port-of-entry health declaration process before they set foot on land,” he said.

Villagomez said that this is being done in collaboration with the Department of Defense, U.S. Coast Guard, Commonwealth Ports Authority, and the Division of Customs, and is to be implemented on Rota as well. “Vessels or ships leaving Guam going to Rota should follow the stringent border entry protocol for health screening.”

The CPA police and the Department of Public Safety will also be present to promote accountability by mariner and their employers, and to ensure that the mariners adhere to the requirements.