During the third wave of COVID-19, people in Nova Scotia are being told to stay home, limit their close contacts, and keep six feet apart.
But for essential workers who need to take crowded Halifax Transit buses to work, that advice isn’t easy to follow.
Most mornings, 22-year-old Tanner Hart takes the bus from the Lacewood terminal to his job at a warehouse in Burnside, and then back home at the end of the day. Very little physical distancing takes place on his usual route, he said.
“They’re packed in the mornings, for sure. Like, every single seat and a lot of people standing up in the aisles. After work, it’s not as packed as the morning bus, but it’s still pretty full,” he said.
“I’m not 100 percent comfortable being that close to a bunch of people in a pandemic, where even the premier of Nova Scotia is recommending you stay 6 feet (apart), but the transit system is OK with you being right next to somebody.”
During a news conference Monday, Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin commented there are early signs the province’s lockdown is working and there are “little to no” COVID-19 exposure sites, but that isn’t the case on Halifax Transit.
Monday night alone, Nova Scotia Health issued 19 new potential COVID-19 exposures on the transport service, which is run by Halifax Regional Municipality.
As of Tuesday, there were 101 active exposures on bus routes listed on the Nova Scotia Health website, in which passengers were told to get tested and self-isolate while awaiting test results.
There are also a number of service disruptions due to staffing availability, as many Halifax Transit drivers are in self-isolation.
Hart said he recently had exposure on his regular bus route and had to miss two days of work while he waited for his results to come back.
He also regularly sees passengers, and sometimes drivers, either not wearing masks or wearing them below their noses.
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