The current COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant effect on the shipping industry. Whilst the plight of cruise ships, stranded off shore with sick passengers and crew, may be dominating media headlines, the current COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant effect on the shipping industry as a whole. This article first explores owners' rights to refuse to call at a port which is affected by the virus, before examining the rights, obligations and liabilities of owners under charterparties in the context of delays at loading and discharging ports. Can owners refuse to comply with charterers' orders? Owners may be concerned that proceeding to a particular port could expose the crew to COVID-19, thereby endangering their health. The crew themselves may express concerns and indeed there have been recent reports in the industry press of a crew refusing to berth and allow stevedores on board the ship due to their fears of coming into contact with the virus. However, owners are only likely to be able to refuse to proceed if there is a specific clause in the charterparty entitling them to do so, or if they can show that any safe port warranty has been breached. Under English law, a port is considered unsafe (and the safe port warranty breached) if it a ship is unable to reach it, use it and return from it without, in the absence of some abnormal occurrence, being exposed to danger which cannot be avoided by good navigation and seamanship. An owner may wish to argue that a port is unsafe because of the danger to the health of the crew, or because of the risk of the vessel being quarantined or delayed after visiting that port. Any dispute about the safety of the port is likely to be highly fact specific, including factors such as the spread of the virus in the port/country in question and the measures which the port have (or the crew can) put in place to limit contact between the crew and shore personnel. In most cases (at least based on the situations we have seen to date)