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Please note we've been advised by the Audit, Regulation & Policies Subsecretary - Ministry of Health, that, in view of International Sanitary Regulations Treatment entry into force in 2007, in order to prevent the spread of public health events and in which the W.H.O. runs health measures for prevention; they, as Authority, have established the Disposition Nº 74 - E/2016, in which it is stated:

1 - It is established the compulsory development of the Cleaning & Disinfection Program for any type of passengers transport means, whether by land, air or sea, that enters or leaves the national soil and with capacity over 14 passengers/crew.

2 - These imposed obligations reach the entities, companies or persons that are responsibles for the vessels' operations, as well as operators and agents who must inform about the laws and regulations in force in our country.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT CLEANING & DISINFECTION PROGRAM

It may be developed by the company that owns or operates the vessel, without requiring any special registration.
When cleaning & Disinfection takes place in Argentina, the products to be used must be authorized by the National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology (ANMAT).
On the other hand, if Cleaning & Disinfection is performed before vessel's arrival to Argentina, the products to be used must be authorized by Sanitary Authority of the country she is coming from.

The compliance of this Program must be periodicaly logged in the Program Log, for each voyage, and be shown and at disposal of Sanitary Authority when same is required.

Items to be included are:
Vessel's plan of living spaces.
One routine cleaning & disinfection procedure and another one for public national or international health event.
Both should point out products, equipment and materials to be used as well as contingences plan to avoid health damages or negative effects in the environment.
In both cases, it will always be applied on inanimate surfaces and in the absence of passengers.
Disinfection Schedule
Personal protection equipment.
Staff periodical training
Documentation and Log books, where it should be shown date and time of disinfection, used products info and Company (in case fumigation service has been outsourced)
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Current disposition will be ruled by following definitions:
Disinfection: Chemical of physical process that destroys most of the pathogenic microorganisms from inanimate objects and surfaces, with the exception of bacterian sporas.
Cl eaning: Removal of undesirable substances by physical and/or chemical means.

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Supposely, this new regulation should be enter in force on February 11th. However, this is an unilateral interpretation of Sanitary Authority in San Lorenzo port and no other office would apply it.
Presently, the San Lorenzo Authority is going to Buenos Aires, in order to hold a meeting with the Madame Subsecretary for checking its validity to be applied or not.

In case this Disposition enters in force, we'll have to appoint a fumigation company to proceed accordingly in all vessels that arrive to Argentina and who haven't performed the fumigation in previous country.

We'll keep you posted.