DRIVING INTO DANGER
Dani Atallah works for Coop Taxi de l’ouest and says business is slow and scary. “I have friends who have become infected and then infected their families,” he said. “We are serving under very high-risk conditions.” Kathryn Greenaway reports.
Even though it looks like Quebec’s COVID-19 outbreak is easing, the province’s public-health director warned Thursday of the risk of not respecting public health orders.
“Your freedom is conditional,” Horacio Arruda said during a news briefing in Quebec City. “The situation remains fragile.”
Montreal reported 34 new deaths Thursday, for a total of 3,016 people who have died of COVID-19 so far. There are now 25,900 confirmed cases on the island of Montreal.
Arruda said that to keep things going in the right direction in Montreal, people must keep social distancing and continue to wear masks in public places.
The pandemic, he warned, is not over. “Summer is coming,” Arruda said. “We’ve been inside a long time. We are social people. We are not machines. We want to be in contact with others. We want to ... even touch each other. And everything around us is making us think that the virus has disappeared, and (that) is not the case.”
Arruda said it’s not clear what impact the large anti-racism rally that was held in Montreal on Sunday night could have on the outbreak. While many people wore masks, not all did, and social distancing was not an easy option. Arruda said it could take up to 15 days — the time it takes for someone with the virus to show symptoms — before the impact is known.
Also on Thursday, the city’s executive committee renewed the state of emergency until June 9. It was first declared on March 27, granting the city exceptional powers to help fight the virus in terms of the distribution of labour and materials.
The number of outbreaks in long-term care facilities and seniors’ residences on the island of Montreal has been declining. On Thursday, the city’s public health department reported 138 outbreaks in those facilities. Earlier in the pandemic, that number had been more than 170.
While 20 per cent of the COVID-19 cases in Montreal are health-care workers, another sector that has seen many cases is the taxi industry. At least two taxi drivers who worked regularly at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport have died of the virus.
“Let’s thank God that it’s not worse,” taxi driver Dani Atallah said.
Atallah is vice-president of the Regroupement des propriétaires de Taxi de Montréal and drives a taxi for Coop Taxi de l’ouest. He also drives a limousine, but has parked it at the airport for now and is only concentrating on West Island customers. He said 80 per cent of the Coop’s 260 drivers have stopped working, not necessarily because they are infected. Some are staying home to avoid getting infected and others are staying home because business is very slow, especially at the airport.
“You can sit at the airport for 12 hours and make $20,” Atallah said.
Atallah couldn’t say exactly how many drivers have been infected, but anecdotally knows the number is not small.
“I have friends who have become infected and then infected their families,” he said. “Then all the passengers they came in contact with had to be contacted. We are serving under very high-risk conditions.”
Picking up passengers who have been travelling abroad, or are from away and visiting Montreal, puts the drivers on the front line. COVID-19 hit the province hard after hundreds of March break travellers arrived home from international travels and snowbirds returned home.
PRE-COVID-19, Atallah worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. He has a family of six to support and pays at least $2,000 a month in taxi-related expenses. So now he works reduced hours.
He just installed a $300 Plexiglas screen in his cab, wears a mask and gloves, and disinfects the taxi interior regularly.
“It’s still not enough,” he said, “but I have to take the risk and work a few hours every day.”