CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The global impact of corona virus has been well documented. This outbreak was deemed a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11th March 2020. As at December 2020, there have been cases confirmed in over 203 countries, areas or territories, according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020).
The outbreak of this virus in Nigeria brought about several restrictions on all sectors of operations in Nigeria as it was described to be communicable and deadly by world health organization.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), coronaviruses are a family 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). These viruses were originally transmitted from animals to people. SARS, for instance, it was transmitted from civet cats to humans while MERS moved to humans from a type of camel. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans. Countries around the world are scrambling to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
On 27 February, Nigeria confirmed its first case in Lagos State, an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria had returned on 25 February from Milan, Italy through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, fell ill on 26 February and was transferred to Lagos State Biosecurity Facilities for isolation and testing. In order to contain the spread of the virus in Nigeria, the federal Government placed restrictions on academic institutions, businesses, social gatherings, religious organizations, human movements, transportation companies and all sectors of transportation etc. The restrictions placed on road transportation are meant to assist the sector to sustain its activities as it is a very vital part of the countries economy.
The restrictions include; only carrying a maximum of 50% passenger capacity to avoid close human contact; having spare buses on standby to handle peak demand (so as to ensure maximum loadings of 50%); increasing the cleaning of commonly touched surfaces in vehicles; ensuring staff maintain social distancing in common areas (i.e. meal rooms) and ensuring every staff puts on face mask.
However, due to the large population of transportation companies and administrative inefficiencies of Government agencies, there have not been any clear view on rate of compliance and adherence to those covid-19 restriction established for the transportation sector. Thence is the focus of this study; to examine and investigate the rate of safety compliance by transport companies over the covid-19 restrictions.