During the pandemic, bus drivers have continued to work even as most of us stay at home. This does put them at higher risk of contracting the virus.
However, just 8 bus drivers have come down with Covid-19 as of 30 Jul, according to the Land Transport Authority (LTA).
Bus operations have continued as normal, even as some drivers were placed on quarantine or Stay-Home Notice (SHN) recently, LTA told The Straits Times (ST).
LTA told ST that the quarantine orders and SHN orders on some drivers have affected less than 1% of the 9,500 bus drivers here.
As such, according to LTA, there’s been no impact on bus operations.
More than 99% of bus drivers have received their 1st Covid-19 jab as well, although LTA and ST didn’t state how many are fully vaccinated.
However, bus drivers will have received their vaccines relatively early as frontliners.
Additionally, drivers near active clusters have been tested using antigen rapid tests.
LTA said that it did this proactively to find infections early.
This is on top of daily cleaning and disinfecting for public transport nodes and vehicles.
Dean of National University of Singapore’s Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health Teo Yik Ying also told ST that there’s probably little risk of passengers catching the virus on the bus.
Most interactions with bus drivers are only for a short duration and everyone has to wear masks, Prof Teo said.
LTA also did a joint study with A*STAR researchers which found that there’s frequent exchange of air in buses and trains.
Buses are kept ventilated when at layovers in interchanges, through opening bus doors.
Along with other measures like wearing masks properly, this should further reduce the risk of transmission on public transport, LTA said.
Even though a majority of people are working from home, buses have continued to run.
There’ll definitely be fewer crowds as a result, making it easier to keep a safe distance from others.
At the same time, bus operations have remained unaffected. If you do need to go anywhere, you can trust that the bus can get you there even during P2HA.
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Featured image adapted from Tobi Law on Unsplash.
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