Unnoticed, super-spreaders of Covid-19 could be on the move, perhaps even to your own home.
How do you protect yourself?
There are police roadblocks mounted on major roads in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur to enforce the latest Movement Control Order (MCO).
In some areas like Kota Damansara, two of the roads leading to Sungai Buloh are completely sealed off with ‘kenduri’ tents manned by two police officers.
Motorists and riders have to detour either via the Tropicana road, the NKVE, or the LDP via the Surian underpass.
The enforced detour is a doubling of the distance and time from the Shell/McDonalds in Kota Damansara to the housing estates around Kelab Rahman Putra, Sungai Buloh.
From a mobility point of view, the roadblocks just make lives harder for workers who are unable to work from home. Probably, the blocks are a psychological tactic to amplify the seriousness of the MCO.
Anyway, beyond psychology, the road blocks and the tail-backs they cause are a definite deterrent to both productive workers and those with no business to be out and about.
With the Covid-19 pandemic as the most disruptive event in our lives, whether you’re a conspiracy theorist or a believer in medical science, it affects you in many ways.
Beyond the debilitating effects of the MCO on our economically productive activities, there’s also the uneasiness when we are sprayed with sanitisers at some shops. What stuff are they spraying?
But let’s look at the science of Covid-19 from the viewpoint of mobility and transmission of this virus.
When Covid-19 first emerged in January last year and was defined as a pandemic in March, there were many theories about how the coronavirus spread.
There was the theory of fomite where we observed how groups of sanitation workers in China sprayed disinfectant and used high-powered arrays of UV light in buses and trains to disinfect fomites – defined as surfaces from bus seats to table tops to reusable cloth masks (as opposed to disposable masks).
As of now, rather than fomites and faeces, the evidence shows that infection is spread by respiratory droplets – the medical term for the germs in sneezes and coughs – directly from people who have the Covid-19 virus but who don’t have the symptoms – asymptomatic – and some of whom are super-spreaders, ie very infectious.
So, we’re looking at direct transmission rather than indirectly via fomites.
In Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, who are these asymptomatic motorists who have the super licence to pass roadblocks?
They are the mobility service providers especially riders who deliver food to your doorstep.
What is troubling is that some of these riders tend to group at food pick-up points without physically distancing themselves from each other. Many medical observers stress that a distance of two metres between individuals is the minimum.
Some food delivery riders also smoke. And once they light up, they pull down their masks and chat with the others in the group.
This was brought to the attention of Grab and the initial response was that they would immediately look into the matter.
“Some shops are small and they might not have space for the riders to park safely. Also, the riders, if they smoke, can’t smoke in the vicinity of a food outlet,” said a manager from a PR agency representing them.
“But certainly, we’ll flag this issue,” she said, responding to a proposal to help the riders distance themselves physically by six feet, and to queue up in a location away from road traffic.
“The SOP is that its riders have to declare their health daily in a form that they have to fill up, including listing their temperature. There are constant reminders for them to mask up, wash their hands and to disinfect their food bags.
“We also promote contactless delivery to our riders and customers. For condos, the customer will go down to the guardhouse and the driver will stand about one metre away, or leave the food on the registration counters as requested.
“There’s a standing reminder for drivers and riders to keep a distance and not be in a confined space.”
Besides the food that the riders deliver, no one wants them to deliver the Covid-19 virus.
If you live in landed property, one way to minimise contact with food delivery riders is to request that the food be placed on a bench outside.
Leave a tip there for him since these riders don’t earn much anyway. And let him ride away before you take the package inside.
As for those who stay in condos, the latest rule is that visitors are not allowed inside the premises, and food deliveries must therefore be left at the guardhouse.
Notwithstanding the reckless and illegal riding styles of some “Mobility as a Service” riders, their services are essential and safeguarding their health is a community responsibility.
Yamin Vong has been a journalist for 40 years and has covered the Tokyo Show almost consecutively since the early 1980s, driven thousands of test cars and met numerous auto industry chiefs. Currently, he’s focussed on the motoring industry’s land transport issues. He blogs at MotorMouth.
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