Despite the risk of coronavirus on public transit remaining low, the TTC says it's taking extra measures to keep customers and employees safe by implementing a major cleaning of airport express buses that pick up passengers from Pearson Airport.
As a result, the TTC said its airport express routes were experiencing "major delays" over the weekend.
READ: New Coronavirus Patient Took GO Bus From Pearson Airport While Symptomatic
On Saturday, Stuart Green, a spokesperson for the TTC, said: "as an extra measure, and to address employee/customer inquiries, crews will do a quick disinfection wipe down on the TTC 900 Airport Express at Kipling Station."
Each of the 900 Airport Express buses coming into Kipling station, which are already cleaned on a daily basis, will now go through a disinfection process that takes about five minutes for each bus and will continue until further notice, as reported by Global News.
Green said that while the risk of exposure to the coronavirus on public transit remains "very low" this is an extra level of protection.
Furthermore, Green said that at this time there aren't any plans in place to implement the same cleaning for the 52A, 300A, 332 and/or 352 TTC buses that also travel to the airport.
"The situation is dynamic and if we need to review or change practices, we will," said Green.
This comes as there have been a number of people who took public transit in the Greater Toronto Area while showing signs of coronavirus.
On Saturday, Metrolinx announced a woman who tested positive for coronavirus was a passenger on a GO bus to Richmond Hill from Pearson International Airport earlier this month. While on Friday, officials revealed a man who recently travelled to Las Vegas had used the TTC, MiWay, and GO transit for three days after returning to Toronto. However, officials did not list the 900 Airport Express as one of the routes he took.
While the spread of the virus remains low in Canada, transit agencies, including the TTC and Metrolinx, have announced extra cleaning precautions to keep employees and customers safe.
The province says at this time the virus is not circulating locally, however, given the global circumstances, Ontario is actively working with city and health partners to plan for the potential of local spread.
The province said it continues to carefully monitor this situation and encourage residents to stay informed by regularly reviewing credible information sources.
