From the onset, SFMTA teams moved quickly to secure supplies, encourage social distancing and make operational changes to minimize the risk of transmission and exposure to all our staff and the community.
We also knew that once there were confirmed cases in San Francisco, it was inevitable that at some point at least one member of our staff would be directly affected.
We can now confirm that someone in our SFMTA family has tested positive on March 24th for COVID-19. Our teams responded swiftly and appropriately and are in coordination with the Department of Public Health.
In addition to our quick reactions, we have proactively implemented numerous measures to reduce health risks for our dedicated Muni operators and other SFMTA staff who continue to keep our city moving, including:
- Directed high-risk or sick employees to stay home, and implemented telecommuting for eligible staff
- Mandated that all operators close the security barrier or cab between the operator and the public. We should be very proud that we have these – other systems across the world are being challenged to come up with protective solutions in the absence of the kinds of barriers that we invested in years ago.
- Replaced service from vehicles that do not have barriers, such as the cable car and historic streetcar lines, with buses to better protect everyone
- Despite national shortages of cleaning supplies, we continue to provide disinfectant wipes to our transit operators daily at pull-outs. And, we are coordinating with our sister City agencies to ensure that SFMTA is a priority for additional supplies as they become available.
- Prepared and distributed 900 spray bottle kits consisting of CDC- listed disinfectant cleanser to support additional cleaning at our transit divisions, facilities, and our non-revenue vehicles (vehicles like the ones our Parking Control Officers operate), and procured enough supplies to create an additional 450 kits
- Created public health campaigns reminding riders about best practices to reduce the risk of COVID transmission – these car cards and multi-lingual announcements are now featured on buses and light rail vehicles
In addition to these measures, we are working on additional steps to continue to minimize the risk of transmission within the community that include:
- Monitoring capacity within each type of Muni vehicle to support social distancing
- Prioritizing service to lines that are more frequently used right now based on data and field observations
- Installing signs on the vehicles to remind passengers to keep distance between themselves and other riders/Muni operators
- Overnight cleaning of all vehicles and vehicle cleaning at terminals at the end of the line, when possible.
We will continue to monitor the situation in order to quickly update our policies and protocols as appropriate. Please visit sfmta.com/COVID19 for the latest agency updates.