'Tweak Quarantine Rules To Keep City Moving'

The government has been urged to come up with a new set of isolation and quarantine rules for transport workers to address worsening epidemic-related service disruptions.

The MTR Corporation says trains are running at reduced frequencies after staff or their close contacts came down with Covid, while dozens of bus routes have been suspended.

KMB said that more than 2,000 of its workers have been unable to report for duty after being infected or ordered into quarantine.

James Ockenden, the founder of Transit Jam - a newspaper focusing on sustainable transport - said more effort should be made to keep the city moving and transport staff at work.

“We’re talking about a very select group here, a very important group…I think we really should be treating them not quite on a par with medical workers but on that level, not treating them as general citizens,” Ockenden told RTHK on Thursday.

With rapid antigen tests (RATs) now more widely available and recognised, he suggested there is room for adjustments in the quarantine requirements for close contacts of infected people.

“We really need to shorten that and use the RATs and really use every technology and innovation we have at our disposal to get them back to work as soon as possible,” he said.

Ockenden added that there should be strict enforcement of a ban on smoking in public transport interchanges, saying he noticed bus drivers among some smokers breaching the regulation.

“Given the pandemic is raging, we’ve got people without masks at public transport interchanges illegally smoking,” he said.

“I find that absolutely shocking.”