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London is a city that has become quiet. However, with a strict coronavirus blockade in place and the normal hustle and bustle largely stopped, the bold red buses still make their way through the sprawling capital that offers frequent service.
Buses are necessary to keep essential workers on the move, though they often carry only one dispersion of passengers at a time, and their drivers have spent weeks since the outbreak following their usual routes.
Now more than two dozen of those drivers are dead as a result of the virus and some say they fear for their lives, despite new security measures implemented in recent days.
“I think we all feel the fact that it could be any one of us,” said Lorraine, 62, who drives a route in South London. She asked that her last name not be used so as not to lose her job. While conditions have improved in recent days, she said, the past few weeks had affected her.
“To be honest, I was really scared,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life that I could die.”
While drivers have expressed concern about the risks of having close contact with the public, it is impossible to say for sure how those who died were infected.
“The worker himself is at risk of becoming infected anywhere,” said Dr. Sylvie Briand, director of Global Infectious Risk Preparedness at the World Health Organization, “not just where she works.”
London, along with the rest of Great Britain, has been officially closed since March 23, with all non-essential businesses closed, schools closed and public life on hold. But like public transport in many other cities, London’s buses and underground are still in operation, commuting workers to and from hospitals, supermarkets and other essential workplaces.
Last week, new citywide security measures were implemented that require passengers to get in and out of buses at intermediate or rear doors where possible and sit in those sections, away from drivers. Passengers do not have to pay, for now, to avoid approaching drivers.
But unions representing bus drivers, as well as victims’ families, say the measures don’t go far enough.
Unite the Union, which represents bus drivers and some other transport workers in London, recently released a statement demanding that More must be done, urging the city to provide personal protective equipment such as disinfectant wipes, masks, and gloves for all drivers, and urged the city to make facial coatings mandatory for people using public transportation.
The measures came too late for Mervyn Mally Kennedy, 67, from Croydon in South London, who had driven a city bus for 16 years. When she reached retirement age two years ago, she decided to continue working, her daughter Penny Palmer said, since she was healthy and eager to work.
Palmer, a nurse, said her father was not initially concerned about contracting the virus himself, although he did care about his three daughters who work in the health sector. Little guidance was given to transport workers, he said, describing it as a “forgotten sector.”
“Many bus drivers, like my father, never complained about going to work,” he said. “But I have a feeling he was nervous.”
On March 31, Mr. Kennedy returned home from a 10-hour shift feeling unwell. High fever and dry cough appeared.
A week later, they took him to the hospital with shortness of breath. He died of a coronavirus on April 7. Ms. Palmer believes that bus drivers do not yet have the tools necessary to do their jobs safely.
John Murphy, Unite’s chief officer for London buses, said the deaths were having a ripple effect on the 22,000 to 24,000 among his “big family” of London bus drivers he describes as the lifeblood of the city.
“Every time someone on the London buses dies it’s absolutely devastating,” he said. “The effect is massive.”
He acknowledged that obtaining personal protective equipment, or P.P.E., for drivers may be unrealistic in a country that can barely provide enough for health and welfare workers, but added that something must be done.
“We knew this would come earlier this year,” he said. “And even today there is no coordinated plan to produce, secure, or supply P.P.E. that’s very necessary. “
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, urged the British government to require people to wear non-medical grade masks in public in situations where they cannot be kept safely apart, such as on public transport.
The World Health Organization has provided general guidelines on the use of masks in public, Dr. Briand said, but noted that authorities should prioritize.
“For people who are exposed very often and cannot physically distance themselves, wearing masks makes sense,” he said. “If they are older workers nearing retirement age or have an underlying condition, this person needs more protection.”
Lorraine said that in the middle of last month, she woke up to the news day after day that another of her fellow drivers had died. She considers herself a “proud London driver” who looks forward to seeing family passengers on the route she has driven for decades. But suddenly she found herself scared of going to work.
“And then I thought that if I get Covid-19, I live here alone, and if I get it and they take me to the hospital, I will not see my children or my grandchildren,” she said.
Then he began writing letters to them, offering them words of comfort if the worst happened.
In a video she made of driver deaths, Lorraine said, “I am at risk,” adding, while crying, “I am scared that I am going to die.”
Looking back, he says he had reached a breaking point earlier this month when he made the video. And although her fears have subsided since the front areas of the buses were out of reach for passengers, she is still concerned about the future of the city.
Lorraine said she has already seen people begin to venture in greater numbers, despite the blockade still in place. That has her concerned about the avalanche of people returning to public transportation when restrictions are eased.
“They say there will be a second wave, and that’s pretty scary,” he said. “But I will take every day as it comes. I will smile. I will do my job, because I am proud to do my job and take my people where they go.”
