Red Cross, ALMA team up for Covid-19 testing for seafarers

Red Cross, ALMA team up for Covid-19 testing for seafarers
Yashika F. Torib October 7, 2020 https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/10/07/business/maritime-business/red-cr...

A partnership between the newly formed Association of Licensed Manning Agencies (ALMA) Maritime Group Corp. and the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has been forged for the smoother and faster conduct of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing of Filipino seafarers who are to be deployed onboard.

ALMA was established by a group of manning agency representatives during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) when newly implemented guidelines on travel restrictions, health protocols, and other Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) regulations failed to reach a huge number of Philippine manning agencies.

ALMA took into its fold all members of the manning sector. Among its top priorities are timely information dissemination to member agencies and assisting the government in resolving the manning sector’s concerns.

According to ALMA president Cristina Garcia, the group has more than 100,000 seafarers from 49 manning agencies. “We are very thankful to Sen. Richard Gordon for the help he extended to make this project possible,” she said.

A memorandum of agreement (MOA) was just signed between the two allowing for the Covid-19 confirmatory polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and other medical and wellness related services rendered to the seafarers who are members of ALMA at a much reduced, expedited and reliable cost.

The partnership, spearheaded and supervised by lawyer Iris Baguilat, president of Döhle Seafront Crewing (Manila) Inc. and trustee of ALMA, aims to hasten the conduct and issuance of Covid-19 test results to facilitate the faster pre-deployment processes of the crew. It can be recalled that the processing of deployment and travel requirements were delayed for the past months due to mobility restrictions and the prolonged processing of government and private agencies that were operating on a skeletal basis.

The project aims to reduce the cost of Covid-19 testing of Filipino seafarers but expedited results. Baguilat said that this is a special accommodation given by PRC through Gordon to the seafarers of ALMA member companies.

The PRC-ALMA agreement aims to accommodate a maximum of 1,300 crew members per day with results to be released within 72 hours for regular tests, 24 hours for stat tests, and 6 to 8 hours for super stat tests, from the time of swabbing.