News

Douala’s Port Authority has issued a Public Notice instigating the following pre-berthing measures aimed at containing COVID-19:

• Ships from countries at risk must wait at the base buoy for a minimum period of 14 days before being allowed to proceed into the channel;

• At the end of this period, the Port Health Service will board the vessel and decide whether the vessel will be allowed to start berthing procedures;

• No other administrations or services will be authorized to board the vessel until Free Pratique has been granted;

• No deliveries on board the vessel are allowed while it is at anchorage at the base buoy;

• Crew changes must be carried out under the supervision of the Port Health Service.

Budd Cameroun advises that any crew member who is found to have COVID-19 type symptoms will be tested and placed in quarantine on board unless his medical condition requires him to be disembarked and treated in a suitable medical facility.

Furthermore, as in Senegal, the term “countries at risk” applies to all countries in which confirmed cases have been recorded by the World Health Organisation, see here for the report published on 9 March 2020. 

Cameroon itself can now be considered as an at-risk country insofar as two French people who arrived from France on 28 February 2020, tested positive for the virus and were hospitalized on 6 March 2020.  The 200 people with whom they had been in contact have been placed in quarantine for 14 days.

Information provided by Budd Cameroon

budd.cameroun@budd-pni.com