Barcelona's suburban trains have added silent carriages for the first time
Credit: Quique Garcia/Shutterstock/EPA-EFE
Catalonia’s government has asked public transport users to avoid talking while travelling on the bus, train, tram or metro as the region battles to bring down alarmingly high levels of Covid-19 infection.
“We recommend that people do not speak and remind them that removing their face mask to speak on the phone or to eat is forbidden,” said Damià Calvet, Catalonia’s infrastructure minister.
Spanish commuters tend to be chattier than their UK counterparts on the underground, and scientists have warned that viral particles in saliva released when speaking inevitably lead to contagion in enclosed spaces. “It would be ideal for people to keep quiet at all times on the subway,” María Cruz Minguillón, a researcher in atmospheric aerosols, told Catalonia’s RAC1 radio station.
“If we speak on the phone in a loud voice because of the background noise in the Metro, 50 times more aerosols are released. If we stay silent with our mask fitted properly, the risk is much lower.”
Catalonia’s regional Rodalies trains have this week launched silent carriages for the first time as part of the effort to encourage quiet commuting, and Mr Calvet said that public transport use stands at less than 60 per cent of the usual level on weekdays, and far lower at weekends.
Responding to passengers’ complaints that carriages were still crowded in the mornings, Mr Calvet said that people must organise their days differently to “avoid everyone using public transport between 8am and 9am”.
Catalonia, which has a curfew in place and where bars and restaurants have been closed for the past four weeks, has brought its R rate back under 1, but Covid occupation of intensive care beds has continued to creep up this week and is now close to 50 per cent.
In total, the regional health department has recorded more than 300,000 cases of Covid since the pandemic began, causing 14,740 deaths.
Свежие комментарии