The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore(MPA) understands the importance of harbour boat crews in assisting operations in Singapore's port. Transport, towage, and bunkering services, as well as delivering supplies to ships at the port, are all provided by the harbour craft sector.

That having been said, MPA has been assisting harbour craft work permit holders with crew changes and disembarkation requests in a variety of situations. Along the way, the MPA Singapore crew change regime has been improved to secure the safety of crew members and to allow crew to perform their onboard jobs in the safest manner possible.

The MPA has lifted its previous restrictions on crew with recent travel history to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, andSri Lanka, as well as sign-off crew from vessels that have called at these countries within the last 21 days, to undergo the new crew change in Singapore, subject to the MPA's procedures.

Unless they are eligible for Singapore's Vaccinated Travel Lane, sign-on crew must be quarantined in their home country for the number of days specified by the Singapore Immigration and Customs Authority (ICA) (VTL). These are all safety measures required by the MPA ship crew change in Singapore.

When shore-based staff such as repair vendors, equipment service providers, and superintendents are still on board, fully vaccinated signing-on crew can board their ship in Singapore. Sign-on staff who have not been vaccinated can only board after all shore-based personnel have disembarked.

The most significant action put forth by the MPA Singapore crew change is that shore-based personnel requiring to board vessels at Singapore's anchorages, shipyards, terminals, and marinas will be required to take an Antigen Rapid Test (ART) instead of a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test during Rostered Routine Testing under the Employer-Supervised Self-Swab regime (RRT). In compliance with the current crew change in Singapore, this applies to shore-based workers who are both vaccinated and unvaccinated.

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