Coronavirus: Abu Dhabi suspends public buses starting Thursday

The suspension will last until further notice but a free service for health workers will remain in place

Buses in Abu Dhabi will be suspended from Thursday until further notice. Victor Besa / The National

UPDATE: At 10pm on Wednesday, Abu Dhabi Department of Municipalities and Transport announced the bus closure would last until Saturday, with services resuming at 6am, following an accelerated disinfection of the vehicles and stations.

Public buses in Abu Dhabi will be suspended from Thursday "until further notice" to contain the spread of coronavirus.

The emirate's Department of Municipalities and Transport announced the suspension on Twitter on Wednesday. Taxis are understood to continue running as usual.

This month, the Integrated Transport Centre, a company that manages the emirate's public transport, launched a free bus-on-demand service for healthcare workers to get to and from hospitals, where they are treating Covid-19 patients.

This service, called Abu Dhabi Healthcare Link, is exempt from Wednesday's decision and will continue to run.

The department said the aim of the suspension was to "preserve the safety of bus users and comes within a series of precautionary measures that are followed to stop the outbreak of coronavirus."

The ITC had implemented measures to protect passengers prior to the suspension of services.

These included extensive cleaning and disinfection of all public transport, such as buses, taxis, ferries and public facilities.

A disinfection gateway had also been installed at Abu Dhabi Central Bus Station to spray passengers as they walked through.

"This all aims at maintaining the public safety and contributing to the efforts dedicated towards preventing the risk of coronavirus," the ITC said.