Metro will reduce Metrorail and Metrobus services as the region’s response to the coronavirus outbreak continues to ramp up.

Starting March 16, trains on all lines will operate every 12 minutes on weekdays. That’s comparable to train frequencies on Saturdays, which will stay at that frequency. Sunday schedules will also remain unchanged, with trains every 15 minutes.

The system’s hours won’t change. Metrorail will remain open on weekdays from 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

[For the latest coronavirus updates, see here.]

Metrobuses will operate on a Saturday supplemental schedule on weekdays. MetroAccess will continue to operate during the hours that the system remains open.

The service changes are part of Metro’s implementation of Phase 3 of its pandemic response plan.

“Phase 3 is the highest level of response and will include all subsequent mitigation steps required during the public health emergency. Metro expects to be at Phase 3 until further notice,” the agency said in a statement.

But that doesn’t mean that further changes won’t occur as the pandemic develops.

“That doesn’t mean that we won’t take further mitigations. In fact, we likely will as we move along through this emergency together,” said Metro spokesman Dan Stessel. “That could mean a further reduction in service based on ridership, if there’s no sense in putting employees out on the system needlessly, or it could be the result of a higher rate of employee absence, where we just don’t have enough to provide certain levels of service.”

The agency says the move to Phase 3 will increase its ability to thoroughly clean buses, rail cars and facilities.

Metro’s Rush Hour Promise has been paused until normal service returns.

Metro is asking riders, especially those using the MetroAccess service, not to use the system if they’re feeling sick.

“IF YOU ARE NOT FEELING WELL, DO NOT TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. Call your healthcare provider before you leave your home and follow their guidance,” Metro’s statement reads.

In addition to the reduction in service, Metro also announced that its administrative employees will be required to work from home. It also plans to put in place remote work assignments for employees whose job functions are not critical to bus or train operations.

As for essential employees in the Rail Operations Command Center (ROCC), who keep track of system-wide operations: they’ll now run the system from two separate locations, to cut down on person-to-person contact.

“Operation of the rail system will alternate between two control centers, allowing downtime for disinfecting keyboards, headsets, microphones, screens and other critical equipment in the control center,” Metro’s statement says.

Visitors are banned from ROCC, and from Metro headquarters at the Jackson Graham Building. Public meetings there are also canceled.

These changes come a day after Metro officials updated the agency’s Executive Board on the steps the agency was taking to respond to the coronavirus presence in the region.

“We want to provide the service. I think we need to provide the service for the region … I don’t envision shutting down the system,” General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said at the time.

Since the meeting, though, area school systems, cultural institutions and offices have closed. More workers in the region are being told to work from home for the next several weeks, as offices attempt to follow public health officials’ calls for “social distancing.”

Wednesday was the first day where there was a noticeable drop-off in daily ridership, compared to a comparable day a week ago. There’s been about a 100,000 drop in ridership from last Wednesday to this Wednesday, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said on Thursday.

Metro’s pandemic task force has been meeting regularly for more than a month, and it has escalated the agency’s level of alert quickly in the last week. Last Friday, after the region’s first positive coronavirus cases were confirmed, Metro announced it would implement Phase 2 of the response plan, which included giving frontline bus operators hand sanitizer, suspending all non-essential employee travel, and increasing monitoring of the volume of employees calling in sick each day. The agency implemented Phase 1 at the end of last month.

This story originally appeared at WAMU.