Transport worker dies after being spat on

London woman had pre-existing health condition

A transport worker in London has died after she was spat at by a member of the public at her workplace. Both the worker and a colleague later tested positive for the virus, but the transport worker didn’t recover.

The Independent reports that ticket worker Belly Mujinga, 47, was working at London’s busy Victoria Station in March when she and her colleague were spat at, and coughed at, by a man who claimed he had COVID-19.

According to her union, Mujinga, who was known to have had a pre-existing health condition, was later found to have the virus. She was placed on a ventilator but died on April 5. The Independent reports that the union, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, has reported her death to the U.K. railway inspectorate. British Transport Police are also investigating the incident. No arrests are reported to have been made, and it remains unclear whether the attacker had the virus, as he claimed.

“She is one of far too many front-line workers who have lost their lives to coronavirus,” TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said, the Independent reported.

“Sadly, Belly’s is just one of many family tragedies where children have had their parents taken away from them. However, there are serious questions about her death; it wasn’t inevitable.”

The union felt questions should be raised about why Mujinga was working in the first place, given her underlying respiratory condition which put her in added danger.

“As a vulnerable person in the ‘at-risk’ category, and her condition known to her employer, there are questions about why she wasn’t stood down from front-line duties early on in this pandemic,” he said.

“Rather than talking about easing the lockdown, the government must first ensure the right precautions and protections have been taken so more lives are not lost.”

The United Kingdom’s COVID-19 death toll topped 38,000 as of early May, by far the worst yet reported in Europe, raising more questions about Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales brought the United Kingdom’s official death toll to 38,289 as of May 3 — up nearly 6,000 in the space of a week, according to a Reuters tally of death registrations data that also includes Scotland and Northern Ireland.

On April 13, London Mayor Sadiq Khan confirmed that 21 London transport workers, including 15 London bus staff, had died from the coronavirus by that point.

Measures such as middle-door boarding and additional cleaning are in place, but staff have expressed fears over a lack of personal protective equipment.