The drivers were working out of Pearson International Airport who have died from Coronavirus include Karam Singh Punian, who died Monday, and Akashdip Grewal, who died Friday, said Rajinder Aujla, president of the Airport Taxi Association, which represents about 700 drivers operating about 350 vehicles licenced to pick up passengers at Pearson.

TORONTO -  COVID-19 is haunting the taxi industry in Toronto as at least 10 taxi and limo drivers, mostly Indo-Canadian, have been killed by the virus.

The drivers were working out of Pearson International Airport who have died from Coronavirus include Karam Singh Punian, who died Monday, and Akashdip Grewal, who died Friday, said Rajinder Aujla, president of the Airport Taxi Association, which represents about 700 drivers operating about 350 vehicles licenced to pick up passengers at Pearson.

“It’s very much scary,” Aujla said, adding he’s angry that more had not been done to protect drivers working at the airport “when people have been travelling from all over the world.”

Punian, who ran twice for Mississauga council and appeared on local radio, leaves behind his wife, two sons, a niece under his care and a grand-daughter, his brother-in-law Sohan Gill told the Toronto Star.

“He was a wonderful man,” Gill said. “He was a person that would think of other people ahead of himself.”

Punian, 59, first got sick at the end of March and isolated himself at home after receiving a diagnosis — but his symptoms worsened and he was eventually put on a ventilator at Toronto General Hospital, where he died, Gill said.

Both Punian and Grewal drove for the airport limo company Aerofleet, said dispatcher Manpreet Khushdil, who played soccer with Grewal, who also died at Toronto General.

“Whenever we had troubles at the office, he would call and help the dispatchers,” Khushdil said. “Everybody liked him. He was a funny and jovial guy.”

Including Punian and Grewal, Khushdil said three Aerofleet drivers have now died in the pandemic.

According to Aujla, at least six of the 10 dead ATA drivers were diagnosed outright with COVID-19 and the others had suspected cases.

It is not clear if the drivers picked up the virus on the job. Still, Aujla said: “If precautionary measures had been taken on time, then this might not have happened.”

The Greater Toronto Airports Authority governs which taxis and limousines can pick up passengers at Pearson.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the drivers who have passed away,” GTAA spokesperson Robin Smith said.

In March, the GTAA relaxed the requirement that all 634 taxis and limousines licensed to operate at Pearson had to do so on a continuous basis, reflecting drivers’ desires to stay home as well as the sharp downturn in business.

“Out of 115 cars, we only have two cars working right now,” Khushdil said. “We used to have 300 orders a day and now we have two or three orders a day.”

The drivers who are working are sanitizing cars after every drop-off, he said. “Drivers are wearing masks. They’re taking proper precautions, and we haven’t got any complaints from our drivers infecting people,” Khushdil said.

“But it’s the other way around, our drivers were getting infected picking people up from the airport.”

Elsewhere, there have been no deaths reported among Toronto’s taxi drivers —a group separate from those with GTAA licenses. But five Beck Taxi drivers have recovered from their COVID-19 diagnosis, operations manager Kristine Hubbard said.