The Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) will reduce the number of its operating trains beginning July 6 after the number of its depot personnel infected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) increased to 127 on Thursday, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) said.

In a virtual briefing Thursday, DOTr Undersecretary for Railways TJ Batan said that out of the confirmed cases, 124 are personnel of the Sumitomo-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the maintenance service provider of the MRT-3, while three are employees of the rail system. Initially, 25 cases were reported on June 22. It increased to 67 on June 30, prompting management to conduct a mass swab testing on all its employees.

Batan emphasized that the infected personnel are assigned at the depot and have no interaction with passengers and station staff.

“Lahat ito ay depot personnel. Ibig sabihin, yung mga tao natin, yung mga empleyado natin sa MRT-3 na nasa mga station na humaharap sa pasahero, hanggang ngayon ay wala pang COVID-19 positive sa kanila (All of them are depot personnel, and until now there are still no confirmed cases on our staff in the station or those interacting with the passengers),” he explained.

Scaled-down ops by Monday With this, Batan said that from 16 to 19 trains per day, the MRT-3 will decrease the deployment of trains to 10 to 12 by Monday, July 6, depending on future results of the swab tests.

“Hindi pa ito final kasi tinitingnan pa ni Sumitomo kung ilan yung magiging final number ng personnel nila sa depot. Doon ibabase yung numbers of train na ilalabas natin (This is not yet final because Sumitomo is still waiting for the final number of their depot personnel that will be able to report for work. We will base there the number of trains that we will deploy),” he added. “The problem is not really the availability of trains. We have available trains but due to limited personnel, we need to reduce the number of trains by next week. The trains to be deployed can be a combination of Dalian or the first generation trains,” Batan said.

The DOTr official also said the rail line will still operate on Friday but operations will be shut down on Saturday and Sunday to give way for rail replacement activities. Increase bus augmentation As passenger capacity is expected to be further reduced next week, Batan said that they are now coordinating with the DOTr Road Sector to increase the augmentation of bus units servicing MRT-3 passengers. He added that the DOTr Rail Sector and the MRT-3 will conduct a daily assessment to determine until when they will operate at a reduced capacity. Safety, health protocols still in place

Meanwhile, MRT-3 Director Mike Capati assured that safety and health protocols are strictly being enforced by the management since it resumed operations under the general community quarantine last month.

These protocols include the screening for symptoms for every entry in the rail line’s facilities, the mandatory wearing of face masks, alternative work arrangements to reduce the number of people in the workplace, regular disinfection of facilities, setting up of sanitation stations, hygiene promotion and physical distancing at the workplace.

Per guidance of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), Capati said additional measures and precautions will also be taken during the reduced operations such as the requiring of full personal protective equipment for stations and depot personnel, limiting movement of depot personnel to their immediate areas of responsibility, increased disinfection activities and heightened monitoring and screening of symptoms among all personnel.