BY ALEXANDRIA SAN JUAN
Physical distancing between commuters in public transportation will be eased beginning next week to accommodate more passengers as the metropolis is slowly going back to life with many workers returning to their workplaces, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) announced on Friday.
This was after the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) approved the proposal of the DOTr and the Economic Development Cluster (EDC) to boost public transport ridership through optimizing or reducing the physical distance between commuters.
“There is a need to safely optimize the carrying capacity of the various public transport modes as Metro Manila and its adjacent areas continue with the transition towards the ‘new normal’ where more workers are expected to return to their re-opened workplaces and more businesses are expected to resume operations that were stopped during the enforcement of strict quarantine measures,” Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said in a statement.
Starting September 14, Monday, Tugade said that physical distancing between commuters inside public transportation will be reduced to 0.75 meters from the current health standard requirement of at least one-meter distance as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The distance will be lowered to 0.5 meters after two weeks, and then to 0.3 meters after another two weeks to allow for optimization of ridership, Tugade said.
In a recent meeting with the IATF-EID, the DOTr explained that physical distancing measures can be safely adjusted as strict health protocols are now being enforced to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) such as the mandatory wearing of face masks and face shields of commuters. (Alexandria San Juan)
