By Lorenz S. Marasigan & Samuel P. Medenilla
TEMPORARY suspension of the MRT 3 for five days was resorted to starting Tuesday owing to the rising number of Covid-19 infections among the light rail employees.
However, despite recording 186 positive cases, completely shutting down the operations of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 3 is not an option for the government, a transport official said on Monday.
In a separate development, Palace officials said the National Capital Region (NCR) is now at risk of being placed back under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) if local critical health-care units in the region are overwhelmed by new Covid-19 cases.
The Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) recommended the temporary suspension of the MRT 3 starting Tuesday (July 7), after the management found 186 personnel were positive of Covid-19. These include station personnel, depot staff, and workforce from contractors.
Resuming operations may run the risk of Covid-19 transmission, but according to Transportation Undersecretary for Railways Timothy Batan, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) is still looking at resuming the operations of the railway line by July 11.
“At this point, we are balancing out the mandate of supporting the reopening of the economy through transportation, and the health and safety of passengers and personnel. Our focus now is to manage the Covid-19 situation at the MRT 3,” he said in a virtual press briefing.
Batan added: “If we see that we could operate without sacrificing health and safety of riders and passengers, and support the gradual reopening of economy, then we can resume.”
Currently, all 3,200 staff of the MRT 3 are undergoing swab testing for Covid-19. Batan said the railway line only needs 1,300 personnel to operate at minimum capacity.
“Once we achieve that, we can resume operations earlier than five days or, if not, we can extend the suspension of the operations,” Batan said.
Contact tracing among personnel is now also being done, but contact tracing for passengers who may have been exposed to Covid-19 positive personnel could not be easily done at this point. This is because unlike other establishments and transport options, passengers are not required to fill out contact tracing forms.
MRT 3 Director Michael Capati noted that the management is now formulating ways to conduct contact tracing for passengers. The group is looking at two options: manual forms or app-based forms.
“While we are waiting for results of the testing, we will also sanitize the depot and the mainline. We will also review the capacity plan in the days to come to know when and how many manpower personnel are needed to resume operation of MRT 3,” he said.
As an alternative, MRT 3 passengers may ride buses fielded by the government along Edsa.
“Initially, we have 90 buses for MRT 3 bus augmentation. We also have additional 150 buses from the Edsa Busway service. We are now talking with LTFRB to add more buses to support passengers who will have no access to MRT 3 starting Tuesday,” Batan said.
ECQ again for NCR?
As for the possibility of Metro Manila returning to ECQ status, the matter was raised on Monday as officials noted the rise in number of infections as lockdowns were eased, vis-à-vis the increasing prospect of having the capital region’s bed capacity for treating cases shrink.
“If there is decline in the critical care capacity…and there is a faster doubling rate [in NCR], this is a possibility,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said during an online press briefing on Monday. Doubling rate refers to the number of days it takes for the number of infections to double in one place.
He made the remark after the Chinese General Hospital in Manila reported during the weekend it could no longer accommodate additional Covid-19 patients because its designated ward for them is already at full capacity.
The issue prompted the Department of Health (DOH) to meet with representatives of NCR hospitals on July 6. They were told to strictly comply with the rule that they should allocate 30 percent of their bed capacities for Covid-19 patients.
Roque, who was present in the meeting, said some of the hospitals appealed to be allowed for them to allocate an initial 20 percent of their bed capacity, which they will gradually increase until it reaches the mandatory 30 percent.
The stricter enforcement of the “30-percent rule” was raised since the utilization rate of dedicated beds for all Covid-19 patients in NCR is already at 63 percent.
The utilization rate could decline once all hospitals in NCR fully comply with the 30-percent rule.
Roque noted the government is now striving to ensure that NCR and other parts of the country will no longer be placed under another lockdown.
“As our economic managers have said, and they have gone public with this, we cannot afford another complete lockdown,” Roque said.
Currently, NCR is under general community quarantine (GCQ) up to July 15, 2020. Its community quarantine classification may be raised or downgraded depending on its critical care capacity and doubling rate.
Image credits: Roy Domingo
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