Metro mass transit buses not observing social distancing

Metro Mass Transit buses operating from 'Kufuor station' at Ashaiman has stopped observing social distancing as authorities now load to full capacity.

A conductor of one of the buses told the Ghana News Agency that it was a directive from above for them to revert to loading full even though all commercial vehicles were directed by the President to observe social distancing in their vehicles to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

She said all passengers were informed before loading and whoever was not agreement was not given access to the bus.

The GNA observed that all buses loaded at the station on last Friday were fully loaded as seats which took one a passenger during the compliance to social distancing, now had two passengers.

Madam Abigail Nartey, a trader who boarded one of the buses on Friday morning, refused to allow anyone to sit by her, saying coronavirus was real therefore the need for management to strictly obey the social distancing directive.

Mr Samuel Adjei, another passager who was going to Accra, also confronted the driver on the issue, according to the driver, their management said they were running at a loss and therefore the need to resume their normal activities of loading the bus to its original capacity.

Mr George Krobea Asante, Head of Corporate Communication at MMT, who took almost a week to respond to the issue, said "Management had served a stern warning to the operational crew at the various terminals on non-compliance with the social distancing protocol following some reports they received on such happenings at some of their terminals.

“Management will not countenance any act of negligence and indiscipline that has the tendency of putting the image of the company into disrepute and that anyone found culpable under our investigation shall be severely dealt with”.

He added that Management had issued an operational directive to reemphasize the need to observe all the safety protocols in all the 16 depots and loading terminals across the country saying “management remains very committed to fighting and helping to prevent the spread of this deadly COVID 19 pandemic”.