On February 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a new name for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus: Coronavirus Disease 2019, or simply, COVID-19.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are known to cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases, such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The new coronavirus strain identified in China has caused cases of severe pneumonia in China and cases have been exported to other cities and countries.
Coronavirus scam alert
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns against criminals disguising themselves as WHO personnel to steal money or sensitive information.
If you are contacted by a person or an organization that claims to be from WHO, make sure to be alert, check the steps below and/or verify their information by contacting WHO directly.
The criminals may make contact via emails, phone calls and even through fax. Remember that as a United Nations agency in-charge of world public health, WHO will:
- never ask you to login to view safety information
- never email attachments you didn’t ask for
- never ask you to visit a link outside of www.who.int
- never charge money to apply for a job, register for a conference, or reserve a hotel
- never conduct lotteries or offer prizes, grants, certificates or funding through email
More information about this particular scam: Beware of criminals pretending to be WHO. For general information about how you can protect yourself against cybercriminals, check out the previous Bow News article: ‘IT Security Bulletin’.
Safety measures for vessels
Odfjell managed vessels are kept updated on the Coronavirus situation, and will adhere to certain procedures if visiting Chinese ports.
In general terms, the instructions to the vessels are as follows:
- Avoid any crew change
- Keep crew on board
- Reduce visits on board to an absolute minimum
- Maintain physical distance to any visitor
- Limit food supplies to essential, non-avoidable supplies
- Maintain a body temperature log of all crew until 14 days after the visit to China
- Several port authorities in other countries are implementing restrictions for vessels coming from China. These restrictions differ from port to port. One example is garbage delivery restrictions in some Indian ports. The vessels are instructed to obtain information from the Next Port Agent at an early stage, to be prepared.
Personal preventive measures
In general, WHO's guidelines to reduce exposure to contagious illnesses are as follows:
- Frequently clean your hands by using alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water
- When coughing and sneezing, cover mouth and nose with flexed elbow or tissue
- Avoid close contact with anyone who has fever and cough
- If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical care early and share previous travel history with your health care provider
More information: Advice by the World Health Organization on precautionary measures.
The guidelines are also summarized in the following posters which may be printed and displayed on board as a reminder of proactive actions each of us can take (click on the image to download the printable file):
Further precautionary measures
- All non-essential travels to China are to be postponed
- The planned Officers' Conference in Manila in February is canceled
- The general advice is to postpone larger meetings/conferences as a precautionary measure
- In the event that authorities advise against travel to a specific region: Make sure that the same advice applies for travels in the reverse direction
- Stay updated and follow public authorities' advice and guidelines
- Limit non-essential travels and in general, consider alternatives are considered - i.e. digital meetings, postponing meetings or delegating to others at the destination location
- Travel requests that counter public authority advice must be elevated to VP level, who will liaise with Crewing
- If you are in doubt in regards to travel, do not hesitate to consult your vessel handler
