Several transport companies, railway factories, and offices are seeing employees take extra precaution in the backdrop of a more infectious form of Covid gripping parts of India.

Transport unions and companies are informing and teaching their members and employers regarding the use of double masks including one surgical mask and a cotton mask; and N95 masks.

State driven lockdown

Local State-driven and city-driven lockdowns – that vary on the extent of stringency – have already resulted in people upping the quality and quantity of masks. “We have started seeing more employees wear a double mask, and use N95 masks,” said an official, from a railway factory. This was echoed by several officials from different railway offices.

Many of the officials who have to visit the office have become more careful than say, two months back. This is because a Covid infection now would mean delays in getting tested, scramble for medicines, hospital beds and oxygen in several places like Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, among others.

Partial working space

Rail Wheel Factory in Karnataka has resorted to half-staff, after Karnataka announced a stringent lockdown, although officials above the post of Deputy Secretary not just in Karnataka but across several locations have to visit the office, as per Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Guidelines.

That said, most of the officials, who can make it to the office by Covid-free, resort to shutting themselves in their rooms, and having only virtual meetings. Some even don’t take off their mask at all to drink water or to eat – fearing they may carry infection home.

Covid equiped

Wabtec, a large rail equipment conglomerate, gives its employees in factories – freshly sealed masks and has put flexi-glass dividers between people eating at its canteen, where people congregate to eat and have to take off their masks. The company has also installed lights that indicate whether a table is sanitised in its canteen, explained a company official.

“So, when people have to take off their masks in a common area, they can have food without being bothered about whether the place is sanitised. Once someone has had food, he/she can switch the light to red, indicating to the cleaner that this requires sanitising. The light turns green after sanitisation,” said a company executive, adding that the practise that was started at Wabtec Corporation’s site in Tamil Nadu was adopted across its other factories.

Logistics vendors

Several delivery staff of logistics vendors engaged by large e-commerce firms, still deliver without a double mask (with one mask being surgical); or without N95 masks. Some delivery staff have been handed over gloves, and cloth masks by their employers, at a time when there is a surge in Covid-prompted home isolation cases, with drop in availability of hospital beds.

“The only way you can contribute to the country is by protecting yourself,” is a common refrain that many officials tell their colleagues exhorting them to adopt Covid-appropriate behaviour.

Though there are no official guidelines, many are working from home in the government offices, said another Delhi-based Government official.

Instances of people wearing PPE kits for their hospital visits to attend Covid patients or to get their vaccines have also come to light. As a precautionary step, cities and companies are starting mobile testing and vaccine delivery vans to prevent crowding while testing or vaccinating.

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