Just over a dozen subway or bus employees are out due to COVID-19, MTA officials said Sunday — a dramatic turnaround from the height of New York City’s Omicron wave, when worker absences forced the agency to scale back service.
“As of Friday, there were just 15 subway/buses employees calling out due to COVID-19, and all subway lines that had been suspended are back,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan told The Post.
Worker absences during the Omicron wave peaked at 20 percent of the total bus and subway workforce of around 40,000 people, Donovan said. COVID accounted for 70 percent of absences.
Transit leaders reduced service as worker absences piled up starting in late December and early January. The B, W and Z trains all went dark, along with the Rockaway Shuttle and express service on the 6 and 7 lines.
At one point 20 percent of the total MTA workforce was absent due to the Omicron wave of the pandemic. Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
The MTA was forced to scale back services in January because of the sick workers. Paul MartinkaThe MTA initially declined to disclose how many of its workers were out sick with COVID. All six lines had resumed by Jan. 24, by which point the MTA said worker absences had dropped to 7 percent.
New York’s single-day COVID-19 positivity rate dropped below 4 percent on Friday for the first time since Nov. 26, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Saturday.
Of the 192,754 test results reported Friday, 7,246 — or 3.76 percent — were positive.
According to MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan, all of the previously suspended subway lines are operating again. AP Photo/John MinchilloThere were 5,466 people hospitalized with the virus across the state Friday, the lowest number since Christmas.
