MONTREAL -- Montreal’s transit authority announced Tuesday that it will buy and give out handcrafted masks to its employees.
Two washable masks will be offered to all workers of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) who request them. They’re intended to be worn while travelling within the city’s transit system.
STM officials said that while wearing the masks will be optional, staff who do wear them will also be setting a good example for the public.
Public health authorities have recently begun recommending that everybody wear such masks in public as a way to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The STM said that it will explain to employees the details of its mask distribution effort as soon as it has finalized its plan.
Certain groups of STM employees already wear protective equipment when needed. Inspectors, transit intervention officers, sanitation workers and paratransit drivers all wear procedural masks, a type of mask commonly worn by medical workers.
The transit authority management says that handmade masks won’t replace this specialized equipment.
Recently, the STM also announced it would install hand sanitizer dispensers in metro stations.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on April 28, 2020.
