Mariners Can Now Get Covid-19 Vaccines at Port After Months Stranded at Sea

Health workers and humanitarian groups at more than 200 ports around the world are making a push to vaccinate thousands of mariners, a population of essential workers that has been largely neglected in the fight against Covid-19. Many of the thousands of global mariners that are unvaccinated have been unable to disembark from their ships and have been stuck aboard, not seeing their families or standing on land for several months. In addition, infections at ports or on ships have disrupted global shipping at a time when bottlenecks are already slowing the world’s economic recovery from Covid-19. Port authorities and nonprofits at some of the world’s busiest ports, including Los Angeles, Rotterdam and Singapore, now offer Covid vaccines to international seafarers. For many of the sailors, it is the first time since the pandemic began that they have been able to get access to vaccines.