Tanker Quarantined at Algeciras After COVID-19 Outbreak On Board

The Danish-owned product tanker Samus Swan has been quarantined at the port of Algeciras due to a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak on board. 

The Samus Swan arrived in Algeciras on a voyage from Nigeria on Monday. Before arrival, nine crewmembers took a rapid COVID-19 test, and seven tested positive. 

Four Filipino members of Samus Swan's crew transferred to a boat and disembarked in Gibraltar prior to the tanker's arrival in Algeciras. They did not have the required visas to enter Spain, according to the Gibraltar Chronicle, and planned to fly out from Gibraltar instead. They tested negative for the virus but have been temporarily quarantined in Gibraltar to ensure that they do not have the disease.

Samus Swan is now berthed at Algeciras' Isla Verde Exterior terminal. Her crew are in quarantine on board, and Spanish public health officials obtained swab samples on Tuesday to carry out lab testing. On Wednesday, tests came back positive for two crewmembers, and health officials evacuated them to a hospital for isolation. Spain's foreign health agency has ordered the tanker held pending the completion of quarantine.

The Samus Swan is the second ship in a month quarantined at Algeciras due to positive COVID-19 tests. On June 11, the boxship Cap San Lorenzo arrived from Brazil, and one asymptomatic crewmember tested positive for the disease. Spain's foreign health agency permitted dockers at APM Terminals Algeciras to continue with cargo operations while the vessel's crew were kept isolated. After operations at the terminal were completed, the vessel was held in quarantine until June 25.