Dear All,

Please see below an information about Announcement of The White House. Following it only vaccinated seamen can enter USA (this refers also to transit flights).

Considering majority of crew changes on Western Hemisphere are done in USA, the new situation will highly affect travels to/from the ships of unvaccinated seafarers.

We highly recommend all our seafarers to be vaccinated, otherwise it may affect their embarkation/disembarkation  and in major cases - even make it impossible.

Unfortunately another complication creates the fact, that Sputnik V has not been approved by WHO yet and US government will recognize only FDA or WHO approved vaccines.

It will cause huge impact to ability of crew changes for our Russian seafarers in America. We will of course do our best to try to minimize the problems.

The White House announced that vaccines will be required for international travelers coming into the United States, with an effective date of November 8, 2021. 

International travelers will be required to provide proof of vaccination in addition to negative COVID-19 test before boarding a flight.

For purposes of entry into the United States, vaccines accepted will include FDA approved or authorized and WHO Emergency Use Listing vaccines.  FDA approved vaccines include those produced by Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, as well as those approved for emergency use including AstraZeneca, Serum Institute of India, Sinopharm (Beijing), and Sinovac.

Note:  This policy will affect foreign crew members flying into the US to join a ship.

Regarding Sputnik V, please see below the latest status described by Reuters (dated 20/10):

MOSCOW, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) is still assessing the Russia-designed Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, according to an update on the WHO's website on Wednesday.

"As with other candidate vaccines, WHO continues to assess Sputnik V vaccines from different manufacturing sites and will publish decisions on their EUL (Emergency Use Listing) status when all the data are available and the review is concluded," WHO said in emailed comments to Reuters.

It said it has restarted the assessment process for the Russian vaccine and that it is awaiting the "completion of rolling submission."

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which promotes Sputnik V abroad, said a group of WHO inspectors is due to visit Russia shortly "to round up all necessary inspections and paperwork on Sputnik V."

Separately, Kirill Dmitriev, the RDIF head, told CNN he expected the WHO to approve Sputnik V in coming months, RIA news agency reported.