After a Toronto man with novel coronavirus (COVID-19) used MiWay this month, the union for Mississauga transit workers wants a two-week leave for members who may have been exposed.

The man, who was in his 40s and had travelled to Las Vegas, used MiWay route 108N to get to work in Meadowvale from March 2 to 4. He used the bus on the morning of those days, according to a release from the City of Mississauga and Peel Public Health, before getting off in the area of Financial Drive and Derry Road West.

By using the route on those three mornings, the man exposed 28 Mississauga transit workers, 7 bus drivers and 21 maintenance staff, according to Jack Jackson, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1572 president.

He said the potentially impacted members are symptom-free and back to work, but have not been tested for coronavirus.

The union has asked the city to put the potentially affected workers on paid leave, which the city has declined to do, Jackson said.

“For real insurance that nothing is being spread or passed along, we do believe for both the public's sake and for our members' sake that these people should be removed from service for a 14-day period,” he said.

Mississauga senior media adviser Catherine Monast did not disclose whether the potentially exposed MiWay employees were tested for novel coronavirus when asked by The Mississauga News.

“This is personal medical information relating to identifiable individuals,” she said in an email. “The city is precluded from sharing this information.”

Monast would also not discuss whether the operators and maintenance staff would be going on leave and said it was a “labour relations issue with a collective bargaining unit (and) the city would not discuss this in public.”

On March 8, MiWay started cleaning its bus fleet with antiviral products, similar to those used by Metrolinx.