COVID vaccination program includes commercial mariners calling on Prince Rupert

Visiting International Mariners are being offered the chance
to receive their COVID-19 vaccinations as part of a 
coast wide program in British Columbia

The quest to vaccinate as many people as possible for COVID-19 has expanded to include mariners that transit to and from Prince Rupert on commercial cargo vessels, that as Health officials in British Columbia recognize the urgency in immunization and the challenges that mariners have had in accessing doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

On Tuesday, the Chamber of Shipping outlined how the vaccination program works with four of the five Health Authorities in the province participating in the vaccination plan, in Prince Rupert, the program is being coordinated by Northern Health, assisted by the Prince Rupert Port Authority and local ship's agents.

The program has already been implemented in some British Columbia ports, including that of Prince Rupert, which the Chamber of Shipping noted through its social media feed on Tuesday.

Global mariners have perhaps had one of the toughest periods of all over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, often restricted to their ships while in port, frequently denied access to a range of services and opportunities that once were available.

To it's credit, the Prince Rupert Port Authority has worked with the vessels that call on the port's facilities to at least try to offer some assistance and offer social activities in a COVID safe plan to reduce some of the boredom and lack of contact that has evolved during the period of COVID.

More notes related to Port Operations can be reviewed from our archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.