As you know, Metro Manila (together with Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal) is again back in Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine from August 4 to 18. That means public-transport vehicles will not be available once more, and that includes jeepneys, taxis, trains and buses. This might be of no concern to those who own and drive their personal cars, but it is a fairly serious one for people who rely on PUVs to get to work—most especially healthcare workers who don’t really have the luxury of choosing to work from home.

The good news is that the Department of Transportation continues to offer free bus rides to our medical frontliners. As of yesterday, August 2, a total of 1,426,885 rides—418,226 in NCR-Greater Manila and 1,008,659 in other regions—had been provided by the service, according to DOTr.

Even better, the transport agency has announced that medical frontliners can now monitor via GPS tracking the movement of these buses so that they can easily access the vehicles when passing through their respective routes.

Here are the Metro Manila routes of the free bus service for healthcare workers, as well as the links they can use to track the specific arrival times of the vehicles:

* ROUTE 1: Meralco (Malanday) to United Doctors Medical Center
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line1_GPS

* ROUTE 2: Valenzuela Gateway Complex to United Doctors Medical Center
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line2_GPS

* ROUTE 3: SM City San Jose del Monte to Centris
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line3_GPS

* ROUTE 4: SM Masinag to The Medical City Ortigas
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line4_GPS

* ROUTE 5: Ortigas Hospital and Healthcare Center to Rizal Medical Center
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line5_GPS

* ROUTE 6: MRT-3 Cubao to Philippine General Hospital via MRT-3 Centris Station
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line6_GPS

* ROUTE 7: Pasig City General Hospital to Makati Medical Center
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line7_GPS

* ROUTE 7A: Medical City Ortigas to VRP Medical Center
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line7a_GPS

* ROUTE 8: Starmall Alabang to St. Luke’s Medical Center BGC
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line8_GPS

* ROUTE 9: Vista Mall Daang Hari to United Doctors Medical Center
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line9_GPS

* ROUTE 10: RITM to Starmall Alabang
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line10_GPS

* ROUTE 11: Starmall Alabang to Manila Doctors Hospital
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line11_GPS

* ROUTE 12: Dasmariñas Pala-Pala to Manila Doctors Hospital
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line12_GPS

* ROUTE 13: Starmall Alabang to Seaoil Imus (Daang Hari/Aguinaldo)
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line13_GPS

* ROUTE 14: SM City Taytay to St. Luke’s Medical Center QC
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line14_GPS

* ROUTE 15: SLEX Sucat Exit to Philippine General Hospital
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line15_GPS

* ROUTE 16: MRT-3 Cubao to Philippine General Hospital
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line16_GPS

* ROUTE 17: SM City San Jose del Monte to SM Fairview/Commonwealth Hospital and Medical Center
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line17_GPS

* ROUTE 18: LRT-1 Monumento to Baclaran Market
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line18_GPS

* ROUTE 19: First Cabuyao Hospital and Medical Center to Starmall Alabang
https://bit.ly/DOTrHS_Line19_GPS

* ROUTE 20: SM City Masinag to Lawton
https://bit.ly/DOTrHs_Line20_GPS

DOTr adds that out of the 150 buses made available for this free-ride program, 110 units have already been fitted with the GPS location trackers. This project is said to have been made possible with the help of PLDT Enterprise and Vectras Inc.

If you know anyone who is in the healthcare profession and who requires a way to move about during the two-week MECQ period, kindly share the above route list together with the GPS locator links.