With schools shut, Indonesian bus drivers ferry COVID-19 patients instead

A driver wearing a personal protective equipment (PPE) drives a school bus transporting patients infected with COVID-19 from a local district health facility to emergency hospital Athlete's Village, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

For the past decade, Yusuf Iswahyu has ferried Indonesian children in his yellow bus to and from their schools.

But with many shut due to COVID-19, the 29-year-old has now signed up alongside other drivers to take patients infected with the virus to an emergency hospital in Jakarta.

A health worker wearing a personal protective equipment (PPE) helps a patient infected with COVID-19 to get into a school bus as he is transported from a local district health facility to emergency hospital Athlete's Village, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

Yusuf's bus has a screen to shield him and he wears protective equipment, but that does not stop him feeling apprehensive - especially after contracting the disease during an earlier stint transporting healthcare workers.

"Of course I am scared... but I never thought of quitting as what I do is not only about work but for humanity," said Yusuf, who has stayed away from his hometown of Cirebon on Java island since the pandemic began to cut the risk of infecting his family.

Indonesia reported on Friday its biggest daily rise of coronavirus cases for a third consecutive day, and the capital is the epicentre of the new outbreak.

School buses are seen at the parking lot before being used for transporting patients infected with the COVID-19 from a local district health facility to emergency hospital Athlete's Village, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

The hospital where Yusuf ferries his charges was converted from the athletes' village built for the 2018 Asian Games, and it is where he himself became a patient in May.

It is one of several state-appointed facilities where Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan has ordered those infected to be isolated, even if they do not have acute symptoms, in a bid to contain the virus's spread.

The world's fourth most populous country has for months struggled to stem a rise in transmission, with 266,845 confirmed cases and a death toll of 10,218, one of the highest in Asia.

29-year-old school bus driver Yusuf Iswahyu rests before transporting patients infected with COVID-19 from a local district health facility to emergency hospital Athlete's Village, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan

(Writing by Ed Davies; editing by John Stonestreet)

A school bus arrives to be cleaned after transporting patients infected with COVID-19 to emergency hospital Athlete's Village, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 25, 2020. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan