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The United Private Hire Drivers union (UPHD) have confirmed the death of one of their members who caught the deadly COVID-19 virus.
27-year-old, father of two, Zeeshan Ahmed passed away from the illness at Tooting's St George's Hospital on Thursday 16 April, the UPHD announced.
The news comes on the same day another London Uber driver allegedly died from the Covid-19 virus. Rajesh Jayaseelan, 45, passed away on 11 April after battling the illness, sparking outrage at the lack of protection being offered to drivers who are continuing to work.
A spokesperson for the UPHD, said via its Twitter page: "It's escalating. @TfLTPH still not communicating with driver community. Still not taking action. All they want is to take our license fee and enforce aggressively. Along comes a deadly virus and they are AWOL. It's not good enough."
Co-founder of the UPHD, Yaseen Aslam, called on Transport for London Taxi and Private Hire department and Deputy Mayor of London for Transport, Heidi Alexander to step up and do something to help prevent such tragedies, saying: "Very painful to hear of another young members death today due to #Covid-19. @TfLTPH @MayorofLondon @Heidi_LDN when will you do something?"
Condolences flooded in from fellow minicab drivers, as well as London black taxi drivers.
Cabbie, Tall Paul, wrote: "There's usually no love lost between my trade (Black cab) and minicab drivers, but this is about the loss of a fellow human being so my thoughts and prayers go out to this fellas family. One too many tragedies because of this vile virus. Lots of love to the family."
Another Twitter user, wrote: "Very sad to hear another driver has fallen victim of Covid-19, it's because of @MayorofLondon and @TfLTPH negligence, drivers are dying."
The UPHD ended their comments by saying: "We've all been let down badly by TfL."
Image credit: Twitter - @United_PHD
