The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the shipping industry is still severe, ranging from vessels being denied entrance to ports to crews on board ships being trapped for many months. To counter and regulate those emerging issues, the shipping industry presently incorporated into the charter parties the BIMCO’s Disease Clause originated from the 2015 Ebola outbreak, the so-called BIMCO’s Infectious or Contagious Diseases (IOCD) Clauses. While proved successful during the Ebola outbreak, those Clauses were inadequate to regulate a global pandemic such as Covid-19 effectively. Specifically, the IOCD Clauses, while they successfully establish the concepts of ‘Disease’ and ‘Affected Area’, fail with the allocation of liability, especially when the crew on board is affected by Covid-19 and the ship needs to deviate from course to change the crew. In that instance, the shipowner, provided that he exercised due diligence in proactively avoiding the infection of his crew, is excluded from liability. In contrast, it is deemed that the liability between shipowner and charterer should be at least shared. For voyage charter parties BIMCO’s Infectious or Contagious Diseases Clause 2015, applied both to the Ebola and the Covid-19 outbreak, allocates the right of termination and the liability for deviations and excessive costs strictly to charterers. In contrast, for the time charter parties, BIMCO has imposed the ‘BIMCO Infectious or Contagious Diseases Clause for Time Charter Parties 2022′ amended presently. According to those regulations, the liability can and should be shared between charterers and ship owners. As a result, the shipowner is forced to exercise due diligence more effectively, especially when he is initially liable for the excessive costs.

Covid-19大流行对航运业的影响仍然严重，从船只被拒绝进入港口到船上的船员被困数月。为了应对和规范这些新出现的问题，航运业目前将源于 2015 年埃博拉疫情的 BIMCO 疾病条款纳入租船合同，即所谓的 BIMCO 传染病或传染病 (IOCD) 条款。虽然这些条款在埃博拉疫情期间被证明是成功的，但不足以有效监管 Covid-19 等全球大流行病。具体来说，IOCD 条款虽然成功地确立了“疾病”和“受影响区域”的概念，但在责任分配方面却失败了，特别是当船上的船员受到 Covid-19 的影响并且船舶需要偏离航线以更换船员。在这种情况下，船东只要尽职尽责，主动避免船员受到感染，就可以免除责任。相比之下，认为船东和租家之间的责任至少应该分担。对于航次租船合同，BIMCO 2015 年传染病条款适用于埃博拉和 Covid-19 疫情，将终止权以及偏差责任和超额费用严格分配给承租人。相比之下，对于期租合同，波罗的海国际航运公会实施了目前修订的《2022 年期租合同的波罗的海国际航运公会传染病条款》。根据这些规定，承租人和船东可以而且应该分担责任。因此，船东被迫更有效地进行尽职调查，特别是当他最初要承担过高的费用时。