ASSESSMENT OF COVID-19 SAFETY COMPLIANCE LEVEL OF TRADERS IN WUSE MARKET, ABUJA

BACKGROUND OF STUDY: Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other non-desirable outcomes. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk (wikipedia 2021). However the safety of human lives has at this recent times become the major priority and concern of the World’s Government due to the unprecedented outbreak and widespread of a pandemic called Covid 19 in the 2019.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), corona viruses 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, was transmitted from civet cats to humans while MERS moved to humans from a type of camel. Several known corona viruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans. Countries around the world are scrambling to halt the spread of the corona-virus pandemic.

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 has 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 safety prevention measures on all sectors of operations in Nigeria as it was described to be communicable and deadly by world health organization.

On 27 February, Nigeria confirmed its first case in Lagos State, an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria returned on 25 February from Milan, Italy through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, fell ill on 26 February and was transferred to Lagos State Bio-security Facilities for isolation and testing. In order to contain the spread of the virus in Nigeria, the federal Government placed restrictions and preventive measures such as; use of face-mask; social distancing, use of sanitizers in washing hands and cleaning surface, this safety measures are all applicable to all sectors and individuals including market traders. However, the Government has persuaded all citizens to ensure safety compliance.

Safety compliance refers to the state of being in accordance with established safety standards and regulations. Thus, this study aims at Assessing the Covid-19 Safety Compliance Level of Traders in Wuse Market, Abuja.