What are the risks during transportation to and from school?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has provided tips to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 in school transport, including encouraging children to adopt health and safety guidelines.

As millions of children travel to and from schools across the country daily, the importance of social distancing, wearing masks and sanitising has again been stressed by experts.

The WHO suggested the following to limit unnecessary exposure of children and staff members in school transport:

• Promote and put in place respiratory and hand hygiene, physical distancing measures and use of masks in transportation such as school buses in accordance with local policy.
• Provide tips about how to safely commute to and from school, including for public transportation.
• Organise only one child per seat and ensure physical distancing of at least 1m between passengers in school buses, if possible. This may require more school buses per school.
• If possible and safe, keep the windows in the buses, taxis and other vehicles open.

The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) suggested 10 key action points to ensure “safe and healthy journeys to school”. These include engaging the entire school community, ensuring physical distancing during school drop-offs and pickups, prioritising active transport to support physical distancing and treating school buses as extensions of the classroom.

It also called on parents, teachers and community leaders to promote safety and hygiene in public transport, ensure equal access for marginalised populations and commit to sustained changes in the long term.

Speaking to TimesLIVE last year, a transport driver said steps had been implemented in the shuttle business to ensure the health and safety of customers and children are prioritised.

This includes sanitising the vehicle.