Metro virus cases rising
Source of spread of COVID-19 is uncertain
The number of Houston-area transit workers with positive COVID-19 tests continues to climb, though health officials and Metro are not sounding alarms that buses and trains pose an additional risk.
Less than 10 days in, Metropolitan Transit Authority officials have reported 50 more positive cases this month, bringing the total to 120 since mid-March. A third of the total cases, 40, have come since June 1 among bus drivers.
“Unfortunately, Metro's increase in COVID cases mirrors what is happening in the Houston region,” transit agency spokesman Jerome Gray said in an email.
The increase comes as Metro readies to resume collecting fares on Sunday, which will increase interactions between riders and bus operators. Officials suspended fares nearly four months ago, during which time ridership has remained about half its typical weekday use.
Transit workers in Houston seem to be faring worse when it comes to positive tests. Harris County, home to 3.5 million people over age 18, has reported slightly more than 35,600 positive cases among adults, meaning about 1 percent of those working age in the county have tested positive. About 2.8 percent of Metro’s workforce has tested positive.
The number of Metro staffers sickened also exceeds that of Dallas Area Rapid Transit — the primary transit provider in the Metroplex. As of Thursday, DART had reported 65 positive cases.
“All exposures have been linked to personal social gatherings, not transit,” DART spokes
man Mark Ball said. “Funerals, parties, family members, etc.”
Two DART workers have died.
Metro has yet to confirm a death related to COVID-19, but officials said a bus operator who previously tested positive for the virus died last month at home. It has not yet been determined whether COVID-19 was the cause.
Local health officials said they cannot pinpoint cases spreading on the transit system, though exactly where people catch the virus is unclear even as cases spike regionally.
“The rise is likely the result of a combination of factors, such as the Memorial Day gatherings and club parties, increasing interactions of society a few weeks ago as reopening phases became less restrictive, Mother’s Day gatherings, protests and marches, packed bars where people failed to follow mask recommendations and people interpreting reopening as back to normal,” city health department spokesman Porfirio Villareal said.
When Metro employees test positive, especially anyone whose job involves contact with the public, transit officials have followed health department advice and detailed when those drivers or others worked and routes and schedules for those drivers. Internally, Metro began testing workers as they arrived for work in early April, weeks after transit officials stopped collecting fares to reduce interactions between riders and operators.
“So far, nothing has been pinpointed to indicate contamination along the system or at Metro facilities,” Gray said. “We are looking very closely at numbers and certainly doubling up efforts for social distancing.”
Metro’s board of directors on June 25 approved requiring all riders wear masks when waiting at bus and train stops and on agency vehicles, a mandate reinforced last week when
Gov. Greg Abbott required mask use in public in most Texas counties. Metro continues to provide masks to those without one.
“We are also seeing good results when operators stop the bus when people refuse to keep on their masks,” Gray said. “In most of these cases, people comply or get off the system before (Metro Police) or supervisors arrive.”
Though Metro officials have said the requirement has gone smoothly, some riders have complained and even flagged transit officials in social media posts that many riders are not complying by pulling masks down to their chins after boarding.