CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
A pandemic of acute respiratory illness popularly known as Covid-19 took the world by storm. The viral illness is rapidly spread across the globe. The virus spreads by droplet transmission, contact with infected case or contact with contaminated fomites. The disease was first recognized after a cluster of pneumonia outbreak was reported in late December 2019 from Wuhan,China. A new, human coronavirus (HCoV) was isolated from these cases and identified as a beta coronavirus and provisionally named 2019 novel corona virus (2019-nCoV) using next-generation sequencing technology. On 11 Feb 2020, the International Committee on taxonomy of Viruses named the virus as “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus ”(SARS-CoV2) while the World Health Organisation named it COVID-19.
Outbreak of fatal respiratory illnesses in Wuhan, China lead to speculations that SARS-CoV2 could be laboratory manipulated virus, however a study published in Nature Medicine on17 Mar 20 by Andersen et al. concluded that the SARS-CoV2 is not a laboratory constructed or manipulated virus based on the RBD on the SARS-CoV2. SARS-CoV-2 has RBD that has high affinity to ACE2 from humans, ferrets, cats and other species with high receptor homology. Coronaviruses are groups of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) as cited by WHO (2019). it was originally transmitted from animals to people. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals which is not yet infected humans. The evolution of these viruses in Nigeria threw the Government into dilemma. As a result the Government took drastic decisions and enacted laws that obliged all individuals and sectors including industries to comply to the globally outlined Covid-19 measures or hence face the penalties by the law. However, the rate of law evasion in Nigeria is overwhelming - many local and infant industries major key participants in Law evasion in Nigeria as they believe in bribery which caught to be guilty of law. On the order hand, the law enforcement agencies in Nigeria are key players in corruption and so therefore do no carryout there duties strictly and effectively as a result of demanding for bribery compensations. Thus, it is on the view of the above that this research is carried out to examine the rate at which industrial workers across Nigerian observe the Covid-19 safety precautions.