Coronavirus: non-essential business travel by AMO personnel on hold

The following notice was distributed to all AMO officials, representatives and employees this morning.

In partial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an indefinite hold on all non-essential business travel by all AMO officials, representatives and employees, effective immediately. This includes routine vessel visits on the East, West and Gulf Coasts, on the Great Lakes, and along the inland waterways.

Emergency travel to assist AMO members in specific situations will be permitted case-by-case, and all AMO personnel are reminded to practice recommended preventative measures in their direct interaction with AMO members and their families - protecting the health of AMO members and AMO employees and all AMO families everywhere is our priority.

Meanwhile, we need an all-hands approach to easing the complications of the President's newly announced 30-day travel ban from Europe to the United States and the broad ban on overseas cargo delivery to U.S. ports.

These measures - announced last night - will affect officer and crew rotations, repatriation, dispatch, vessel schedules and other routine functions. Some ships could be subject to quarantine upon arrival in U.S. waters.

I ask that all AMO personnel make note of the specific personal difficulties they learn of in their conversations with AMO members, and that we do everything we can to assist these AMO members.

We do not want to limit AMO membership access to the headquarters building or to the AMO offices in Toledo and in Washington, D.C., where the infection rate continues to rise. But we do want to limit the risk - please apply all precautionary practices while on the job.

Thank you.

Paul Doell