Last week’s press reports cited the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) new ruling that lifted restrictions for children above 10 years old and allow them to go out of their homes in areas under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ). This as government tries to spur consumer spending and revive economic growth. The IATF allowed local government units (LGU) the authority to decide on the age limit for minors depending on their coronavirus situation. The recommendation to relax age-based restrictions for areas on MGCQ will apply beginning February 1, 2021 (President Duterte revoked this ruling in his press briefing last Monday night). But stay-at-home restriction remains for those below 10 years old and those who are over 65 years of age who are still required to remain in their residence at all times.
This is just one of the indicators that the country is loosening up. Traffic build-ups in our major streets has returned as Metro Manila residents try to pick up where they have left off before the pandemic. But there are some misgivings about going back into the streets in huge numbers and clogging up the roads with both private vehicles as well as public transportation as they were before. The main concern or the 800-pound gorilla in the picture is COVID-19 which should not be ignored or underestimated. The virus is still very much in our midst with the Philippines officially exceeding more than half a million infections and a daily count from 2,000 to 3,000 new cases.
And as if to pile a new burden on top of our present COVID-19 woes, how about the recent reports that a virus mutation known to have originated in Britain is now active and present in our shores. According to one account, “The Department of Health (DOH) confirmed the 12 cases in Mountain Province, saying these cases were among the 16 new cases of the UK variant in the country. The UK variant known as B117 was first detected in the United Kingdom in September 2020.
What all these developments amount to is the need for everyone to remain vigilant and to be extra-careful particularly as street life and multitudes of people are beginning to return to our places of business or leisure; in offices and market places; walking on sidewalks and riding in our streets. So it is quite relevant that new studies indicate how we can keep our riding and commuting public safe inside cars or motor vehicles and avoid the risk of infection from the COVID-19 virus. One such study is by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Brown University, published this month in Science Advances, that looked at “complex airflow patterns that exist inside the passenger cabin of an automobile” and how these patterns affect possible virus transmission between a driver and a passenger. The authors note that a viral load can build up inside the microclimate of a vehicle even on drives as short as 15 minutes, and the virus can remain viable in the air for up to three hours.
Their conclusion is that all the windows down in the vehicle is the safest as this allows the highest amount of air changes per hour (ACH) and thus the most airflow to get potential viruses out of the car. The science says that having all of the windows down “establishes two distinct airflow paths within the car cabin, which help to isolate the left and right sides, and maximizes the ACH in the passenger cabin.” The second safest is to keep the opposing (that is, the front passenger and rear driver’s side) windows open to create a sort of “air curtain” between the vehicle’s two occupants. Wearing masks or installing physical barriers in the car, the authors say, can be effective steps as well.
Maybe it is time to update the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Joint Memorandum Circular No. 20-04, as amended, or the “Supplemental Guidelines on Workplace Prevention and Control of COVID-19” that enjoined large and medium sized private establishments (i.e., with total assets of above Php 15M) to provide shuttle services for their employees. The minimum public health standards are to be enforced in the shuttle services (i.e., use of face shields and face masks, observance of physical distancing, and frequent disinfection). And may we add an update on added road safety based on the latest science to keep our riding public safe, wherever they may be: on a shuttle, a bus, train or car. Safe motoring everyone!