A Letter to Constance: Covid-19 Vaccine Priority for Bus Operators
RTBU Tram and Bus Divisional President Daniel Jaggers has written to NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance requesting that bus drivers be identified as a priority employment category for vaccination and workplace rapid testing.
Over 3000 bus drivers employed by the State Government and Private Operators are at unique risk of contracting and/or transmitting the highly infectious Delta strain of COVID-19. Working environments of bus operators mean they are more susceptible to working in enclosed spaces with multiple passengers for a long period of time, increasing the chance of them becoming a close contact.
This is especially crucial as bus stops and passengers have the potential to cause a rapid increase in infections where a transmission event occurs. This is particularly the case when a few days are required for contact tracing and infected people are active in the community for some time before identification.