Effective Monday May 25, the Société de Transport de Laval will start distributing anti-COVID-19 face coverings to users, as part of a concerted operation involving all four Montréal metropolitan area public transit authorities.
Distribution points for the operation, made possible with support from the government of Quebec, will be the Montmorency and Cartier terminals, during peak hours, the STL said in a statement Friday.
Distribution will be by hand, a method approved by public health authorities. Squads of STL employees will be onsite handling the distribution. They will be equipped with visors, masks and gloves. The STL says there will be limited quantities on each distribution day, and the distribution will continue while supplies last.
In total, 15,000 reusable face coverings will be distributed in Laval during this first round, which will span several days. From those quantities, 1,000 face coverings will be sent by mail to paratransit users. The STL says more rounds will be forthcoming in the coming months, depending on how the COVID-19 situation evolves and on supply volumes.
“With this round of distribution and those that will follow, the aim is to foster the use of face coverings by the bus riding community,” said STL president Éric Morasse. “As we’ve seen these past weeks, and will see increasingly as lockdown restrictions ease as of today, social distancing will no longer be possible when using public transit. We must all adapt to this new reality, which we will have to contend with for many months to come.”
