Echizen-Maru

Dockers of SUPA union refused to unload the 'Echizen Maru' on which 57 Covid-19 infections were reported. The cargo boxes were stored at 25 degrees below zero which the bug can withstand. The port stevedores of the city of Ushuaia expressed their great concern about the situation on board the ship, the same where practically all of the 61 crew - 57 sailors - acquired coronavirus. They disinfected the fishing vessel "Echizen Maru", but operations were halted and they agreed not to work, because it was all superficial. The union questioned whether those 15,000 boxes were indeed disinfected, and indicated that most of the crew who went down to the cargo hold to store them already had symptoms.

After the entire crew of the 'Echizen Maru' been discharged from the clinic, the authorities of the Ministry of Health of the Province disinfected the vessel on Aug 5. The intervention of the National Service of Health and Food Quality (SENASA) was now expected to determine to unload the cargo and the destination that it should be given.

The 61 crew members of the “Echizen Maru” who had contracted coronaviruses when they were at sea wree already clinically and epidemiologically discharged. 28 of them even got off the ship on July 31 as the epidemiological situation was allowing it. Three people have already returned to their province and another 32 will return on Aug 3. The "Echizen Maru" had to return on July 11 when part of its crew was infected with COVID 19. The strange thing was that some sailors presented symptoms after spending almost a month on the high seas. Part of the crew (from the province of Corrientes) had traveled to Tierra del Fuego on the same flight as an 80-year-old man who had COVID-19 and who a few days later became the first deceased from Tierra del Fuego because of the pandemic. However, before boarding, the sailors were swabbed and all tested negative. The ship spent almost a month on the high seas. It was due to return to port on July 20, but her return was brought forward to July 11 due to the infections.