Editorial | Mandatory face masks for public transport

THE GOVERNMENT’S imposition of a night-time curfew, among measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, would probably have been informed by an analysis of after-dark traffic patterns and adherence to the administration’s shelter-in-place guidance of a week ago. Prime Minister Andrew Holness suggested that the advice that people stay at home, unless they have pressing business away, and a ban on gatherings of more than 10 persons, is being insufficiently heeded.

“Whilst there was a fairly high level of compliance with regard to the various orders that were made over the last weekend, we recognised that there is an increase in movement,” said Prime Minister Andrew Holness in announcing the 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew that began Wednesday night. “This increase in movement has come at a time when we are expecting that there will be a greater probability for infections, given the fact that we had, coming into the island, close to 7,000 visitors, residents, Jamaicans, and citizens, of which approximately 1,500 left the island…”

The problem, the prime minister said, is the uncertainty that persons have been “faithful to the quarantine rules”, and may have been abroad in communities, potentially spreading the virus at the very time Jamaica, with 44 confirmed cases (up to press time) of COVID-19, is expecting a community spread of the disease, as opposed to infections directly traced to persons who brought it into the island.

That people arriving in Jamaica with the virus could accelerate its spread in Jamaica is of legitimate concern to the authorities. But the PM’s observations raise questions about the robustness of the Government’s systems for tracking at-risk persons, who are supposed to be either in self-isolation or other forms of voluntary quarantine. Indeed, we are surprised that persons who came into the island on flights with persons who developed COVID-19 are being invited to contact the health authorities via a hotline, rather than being directly engaged by officials.

For, given that Jamaica, relatively, was early off the mark in putting in place protocols control the virus, we expected that this kind of information would be readily available, and at hand, for the authorities to act proactively should the need arise. In the event, this is part of the system that ought to be reviewed, as should be the case with all protocols, once more is understood about the virus and systems for its management are tested by the realities on the ground.

SHOULD BE MONITORED

It is in this context that, while raising no objection to the night-time curfew, we believe it should be monitored to ensure it doesn’t worsen the mischief it is aimed to correct. Though it might prove an undeclared tool in crime-fighting, the understood intent of the curfew is to keep people in their homes to enhance the social-distancing protocol that has proved effective in slowing the transmission of COVID-19.

But the curfew is after some people – other than persons over 75 who are confined to their homes, and those whose firms tell to work from home – have already spent a day on the road, engaged in various enterprises. The problem is that many Jamaicans, especially visible among the urban poor, live in difficult circumstances, often in dilapidated tenements, several to a room.

The well-known anecdote is that in inner-city communities, people, to avoid the overcrowding at home, often stay on street corners late into the night, venturing in only to sleep. The street, in the circumstance, is a better environment for social distancing than a tight tenement yard.

These considerations, notwithstanding, there may be other protocols that can contribute to slowing the spread of COVID-19, without being undue burdens to individuals and communities. For instance, it could be mandatory that anyone using public transportation, or going in a public facility, including banks and supermarkets and government offices, must wear a face mask. While not being fool proof against contracting the virus, masks help in containing particles emitted by individuals from being ingested by others. Masks can be cheaply produced, and its manufacture could become a cottage industry.

Further, every public transport operator, bus or taxi, could be required to provide each passenger the opportunity to sanitise his/her hands and arms with an appropriate solution before entering the vehicle, failing which the passenger can be left behind.