As the number of Covid-19 patients increase exponentially, more isolation facilities have been created to ensure hospitals are not overwhelmed during this period.

Many patients who are recovering or have mild symptoms have since been transported to various community facilities.

There are currently 10,465 patients being isolated and cared for in community facilities, as of Apr. 25. That's close to 90 per cent of the total number of existing Covid-19 patients in Singapore who have not recovered.

Patients at the community facilities might have to be ferried to the hospitals, should their conditions worsen.

SMRT buses converted to transport Covid-19 patients

To prevent any transport crunch, some SMRT buses will be deployed to transport Covid-19 patients during this period.

According to Ho Ching's Facebook post on April 25, 20 SMRT buses have been converted with additional compartments and safety features.

This was done with the help from a Singapore-based engineering company called Hope Technik.

On these buses, the driver and passengers will be seated in different compartments with separate air-conditioning systems.

Other staff, including a paramedic, admin support managers, or escort officers, might be on board to help ferry the patients.

The staff will be taking the two additional seats in the driver compartment.

Between the two compartments, there's a door that allows the paramedic to enter and check on the passengers if need be.

The buses will also have negative pressure systems added for the patient compartment to ensure the air will not flow out of the passengers' compartment of these buses.

The air in the passengers will be "scrubbed and cleaned" before being vented out, Ho said.

These buses will start ferrying patients between hospitals, dormitories and community facilities starting from next week.

More drivers needed

A further order for 30 more such buses will be placed, Ho said.

At the end of her post, she also wrote that more drivers are needed for this service, urging anyone with a class 4 driving license to apply to SMRT to drive these buses.

Ho also thanked all drivers who have already volunteered their service to help to transport patients during this trying period.

Here's the full post:

Mothership has reached out to SMRT for more details on this project. We will update the story when more information is provided.

Top photos via Ho Ching's Facebook