Page 36: of Marine News Magazine (May 2020)

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INLAND WATERWAYS

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The American Waterways Operators (AWO) has made available on its website a number of tools and resources to help operators navigate the coronavirus pandemic. In a recent webinar presented by the organization, CTEH’s Dr. Christopher

Kuhlman, a board-certi?ed toxicologist and industrial hygienist covered a wide range of maritime-speci?c COVID-19 emergency response issues, including the proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as best practices for screening crew members and disinfecting vessel areas.

Keeping vessels coronavirus free is a safety concern ?rst and foremost, but there are also ?nancial factors to be considered. If a crewmember were to contract the coronavirus, costs for sidelining the vessel mid-journey, quarantining the crew, cleaning the vessel and mobilizing another crew could run $40,000 to $50,000 per day, Canal Barge CEO,

Merritt Lane, told Reuters, adding that the outage of one vessel could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

May 2020 36 MN