COVID-19 Monitoring Unit says PSVs not targeted, all public transportation being watched

All forms of transportation, including state-run Transport Board buses, will be under the microscope as the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit continues its enforcement of protocols to help curb the spread of the virus.

That announcement was made by the head of the unit, Ronald Chapman, as he responded to questions posed by Barbados TODAY about some public service vehicle operators feeling they were being targeted unfairly by the unit.

“Our guys are on the road right now and they will be looking at all public transportation. There is no attempt, basically, to go after private sector transportation, it is all transportation,” he assured.

“I wouldn’t say there is an increased vigilance [on transport sector] , there is vigilance across the entire island on all sectors. I’m certain that the persons who have bars and so on will say that there is increased vigilance on them, and there are some places of worship that would say the same thing. It isn’t everything that gets out into the media.”

Chapman explained that the transportation sector, on a whole, was being monitored more because of the volume of people that it deals with daily.

“If there is a sector and activity or behaviour that increases exposure to this virus or the potential to this virus, it is essential that the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit as well as all of the members of the Ministry of Health and Wellness work diligently to ensure that that exposure is reduced,” he contended.

Chapman was speaking to the media in the presence of representatives from the Alliance of Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) which sought to impress on its members the need to address the concerns raised by the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit.

Communications and Marketing Officer of AOPT Mark Haynes expressed concern about punitive action being taken against the operators, given the somewhat unique circumstances in which they have to work.

In response, Chapman said: “We are not here to be punitive, we are here to get some corrections within the system, so our officers have been out all day taking a very close look at the sector. But, in the meantime, we are not only taking action with respect to non-compliance but we are also taking action in terms of education and offering any kind of support that we can in terms of sensitisation.”

He further assured that a heavy-handed approach would not be used.

“We are working to ensure that we have compliance and that if there is an action against non-compliance, that it is done in a fair, just and even-handed way…. You may have a vehicle which only has a driver; if a passenger gets in and takes the mask off, the driver does not know…. Where there is a conductor, we would expect that the conductor would tell persons to ‘put your mask back on’. Those are the kinds of issues that we are talking through and working through,” Chapman said.

He added that his unit would also be closely monitoring Transport Board buses, especially as students return to the classroom on September 21.

“One of the things we would have noticed is persons either not wearing a mask or wearing them incorrectly; and the commuters as well, some getting in and not wearing a mask and the conductors and so on. The concern, as schools opens back, is if we are really going to get this under control or if we are going to have this same challenge going forward, because we don’t want to put large numbers of protocols to keep the children safe at school but then we have issues with them en route to school.”
kobiebroomes@barbadostoday.bb