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By Cheryl Chia

TAXI drivers are taking care to avoid places such as hospitals and airports because they are afraid they would catch the Influenza A (H1N1) virus there.

Yesterday, the Health Ministry confirmed three more cases, bringing the total of infected patients to 21.

Some of them, like Mr S. Lim, 58, have taken to disinfecting their vehicles every day.

Mr Lim, who also makes it a point to wind down his windows each time he picks up a passenger who is ill, said: "As long as they cough or sneeze, the windows would definitely be down. I wouldn't want to fall sick, in any case, not just because of H1N1."

Other cabbies shun hospitals unless they have passengers who want to be dropped off there.

Taxi driver Y. S. Chan, 56, said: "Of course, when a passenger boards my taxi and asks to be taken to those places, I won't ask him to get out. I'd still take him there."

Another driver, Mr Raja K., 60, said that he avoids taking bookings to go to Tan Tock Seng Hospital as H1N1 patients are housed there.

Passengers, on the other hand, thought that there was no need to take such measures, even as they felt there was no harm in being cautious.

Mr Andrew Aaron, 20, an assistant event coordinator, said: "Taxi drivers still need to make a living, H1N1 or not. Avoiding certain places, especially the airport, would result in less income for them."

Agreeing with Mr Aaron is Mr Jerry Sim, 30, a manager: "It is good to be vigilant, but people visiting and leaving hospitals need taxis, especially if they are elderly. If drivers avoid hospitals, how are the elderly going to get there with ease?" However, to undergraduate Alex Tan, 22, there is a positive side to cabbies' caution.

"Taxis are now cleaner and I seldom find disgusting used tissue paper stuffed in the door handles," he said.

Others, like Ms Alice Lee, 25, an accounts executive, said they did not feel offended when taxi drivers ask them questions like where they had travelled recently.

"The taxi driver asked me where I returned from before I boarded his taxi at the airport but he wasn't rude about it. So, I was fine with it," she said.

ccher@sph.com.sg

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it was reported that when the 19th H1N1 detected...she took a cab home from AP

now the garmen is taking measures for her recovery...no one is interested if that poor cabby got infected