COVID-19 and effective management of public transport: perspective from the Philippines / G U Nnadiri and N S Lopez

The fight of COVID-19 resulted to the suspension of main public transportation services in the Philippines to avoid the spread of the virus on March 16, 2020. This raised questions on how people can travel to access essential services. A study estimated that there can be 7 billion infections and 40 million deaths globally this year in the absence of interventions. Thus, in this paper, the authors reflect on key transport-related issues arising from the pandemic and analyse potential policy recommendations. Particularly, the paper provides a focus on public transport services. The authors recommend focusing on reducing virus transmission in surfaces found in public transport vehicles, use of digital technology to speed up information generation and distribution for contact tracing, and exertion of efforts to reduce transport demand by incentivizing and supporting telecommuting among companies. In conclusion, the authors believe that the central government should be on top of this COVID-19 response. Though delegating the management to local government units and various sectors has its benefits, one wrong decision from a certain unit can lead to a ripple of infections. Standards and protocols, especially on how public transport should operate, must be scientifically commissioned to avoid one big trial and error experiment considering the wealth of information already available in literature.