Measures mulled to minimise risk at bus interchanges

THE growing Covid-19 clusters at bus interchanges suggest that workplace practices across different interchanges could be causing the virus to spread, said an infectious disease expert.

This warrants closer investigation, said Dr Leong Hoe Nam from the Rophi Clinic, as he called for measures to be tightened.

There were 314 Covid-19 cases linked to staff members at eight bus interchanges as at Wednesday.

“It could be the rest areas, the way they hand over and talk. There might also be a need to look at toilets, where they take out their masks, wash their faces – the toilet may turn out to be the most contaminated place,” he said.

“The really essential workers, who cannot afford to fall sick, should wear proper surgical masks instead of cloth masks. I still see some people using last year’s National Day Parade masks – those are not good.”

Assistant Professor Terence Fan at the Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business, who specialises in transport issues, said another way to minimise risks is to set up plexiglass panels around the bus driver’s seat.

Prof Fan said it is not clear at this point if all the bus drivers were infected by the same strain, and that the situation will be clearer after virologists’ analyses.

For those who live together and are close contacts of one another, however, the risk of mutual infection is increased.

Even without such factors, the risk of exposure for bus drivers is already “inherently high” as they come into contact with hundreds of commuters every day.

“Some people might ask why (bus interchange clusters did not occur) earlier, but the opportunity had not arisen, the virus was maybe not as transmissible,” said Dr Leong. — The Straits Times/ANN