With the lifting of ban on interstate travels in Nigeria, everyone understands the implication as it concerns the spread of Covid-19 across the country.
According to reports by the Nigeria Center Disease Control, more than 25,000 confirmed cases have been recorded in Nigeria and in the last 20 twenty have daily reports have been on more than an average of 300, which is huge compared to where we were during the first Lockdown.
With more than 132,000 tests conducted across the country, Nigeria stands with about 18% infection rate, taking two steps above the 16% it remained for a long time. The 2% increase in infection rate means more people are getting the virus, which explains the high daily figures.
Lagos State the commercial hub of the country stands with more than 10,000 cases, about 41% of the total cases in the country and also marking about 22% of more than 500 deaths caused by the virus.
With Lagos being the commercial hub of the nation as well as epicenter for the pandemic it would be right to say that there would be a lot of virus exports from the city to other parts of the country from July 1, when the ban on interstate travels will be officially lifted.
Lagos will not be the only state exporting, and people embarking on a long distant journey by bus will be most at risk because no matter how hard they try, no one can comfortably wear a face mask for up 5 hours or more spent on the road.
Workers at the food sector will mostly at risk, because there business requires close contact with not only people, but their wares.
With the away our markets are structures, traders and their customers will find it difficult to observe social distancing and there is no way our markets will be called a market without the crowd it is known for.
Education and religion will always stand in the way of fighting the spread of the virus, as people will in most cases believe that God will protect them even when they are doing everything wrongly.
NCDC in their #TakeResponsibility campaign have made it care that everyone is responsible for their safety, which means they can only for people who have the virus, but will do little or nothing for those who do not, aside the educational materials they are already putting out there.
It is now left for state government and market unions to enforce the remaining safety measures, bearing in mind that a monstrous rise in infection rate in the country would mean shutting down of the markets again.
State Governments especially, should partner with market union in the provision of protective materials as well as the enforcement of their use. Markets could be no face mask – no entry and containers to improvise running water could be provided at various entry and exit points of the market.
In all these, education should also be the number step for traders, law enforcement agents and market union leaders to ensure no one goes out of the rule to molest or exploit others in the name of fighting Covid-19.