• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Nigerians adopt lifestyle changes amid Coronavirus threat

Nigerians-Coronavirus threat

As Coronavirus spreads beyond China to other parts of the world, the global economy is beginning to be impacted negatively. While many fear the spread of the virus to Africa because of the assumed lack of proactive measures, adequate skills and facilities to handle emergency situations, the virus is finally here with us.

Since it was reported that an Italian national brought the virus to Nigeria, people no longer live their lives at ease as many are taking precautionary measures to safeguard themselves from the dreaded virus, which has killed thousands mainly in China where it started.

Most importantly, Nigerians are changing their lifestyles to boost their safety, and the change is not funny as many are confessing already.

Before now, many Nigerians do not take the simple hand-washing culture seriously. Many hardly use sanitizers even when they are provided for free. Today, is becoming compulsory to wash hands in public places and corporate offices as hand sanitizers are stationed at the entrance and a prerequisite for entrance.

At cinemas, shopping malls, retaurants, churches, airports, sports venues, even in private homes, hand-washing is now the order of the day.

However, many prefer staying indoors, avoiding contacts with others and covering nose and mouth as the virus spreads faster with contact from persons infested or touching surfaces the infected persons have contact with.

Of course, it means less patronage at restaurants, bars, cinemas, match viewing centres and is gradually getting to schools and places of worship.

A survey by BDSUNDAY revealed that many are grudgingly changing their lifestyle.

“I read that I should wash my hands for at least 21 seconds and on a running tap. I am used to washing my hand in a bowl and not for up to 20 seconds, so I am finding it difficult following all the preventive measures,” a shop attendant who simply identified himself as Earnest said.

“The more we learn and practise hygiene habits, the better chances of curtailing the spread of the virus,” Oladoyin Odubanjo, chair, Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN), Lagos Chapter, said.

For Odubanjo, Nigerians should make all necessary sacrifice to curtail the spread of the virus because its spread would pose significant challenges to health care facilities across the country.

To contain the spread, medical experts have urged Nigerians to wash their hands regularly with flowing water, soap and use hand sanitisers where they cannot easily access water and soap to wash.

They also say that Nigerians should avoid rubbing their hands on their face, nose and mouth to prevent the virus from entering the body.

But these basic hygiene practices have been very difficult for some Nigerians to maintain.

So far, businesses are beginning to count their losses. Following the confirmed case in Nigeria, football viewing centres have been experiencing low patronage as many soccer fans have opted to stay at home and watch the games in a bid to avoid contact and getting infected with the virus.

Church attendance has also been negatively impacted. Many worship centres have reported sharp drop in attendance at weekly programmes. Some worshippers now prefer to listen to messages on Television, radio or online.

Many churches now have hand sanitizers at the entrance where members are urged to make use of them before entering the church auditorium.

Recall that following the discovery of the coronavirus in the country, the social media was inundated with posts, calling on religious leaders, particularly, those with large congregations to cancel their meetings.

The Nigeria’s aviation sector has seen about 20 percent decline in passenger traffic as a result of Coronavirus (COVID-19), Bankole Bernard, president of the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agents, (NANTA) has disclosed.

Bernard said since the spread of the Coronavirus from China, the travel industry has been affected, especially because Nigeria is an import-driven country but Nigerians however, are now diverting to other countries such as Turkey to import their goods.

The NANTA president said the level of resilience and tenacity of Nigerians is second to none as Nigerians now go to Turkey to bring in their goods instead of China.

“Yes, there have been decline in traffic but we see Nigerians changing their movement. If Nigeria operates the open skies approach, some of the international carriers will apply to fly two or three aircraft into Nigeria because Nigeria is doing all it can to curtail the spread of the virus.

“None of the foreign airlines that fly into Nigeria have cancelled their flight since the spread of the virus. We are still selling tickets, although not as much as we used to. Corona virus did not affect local flights,” he said.

Considering the fact that airports are major contact points, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has directed all airlines to issue Health Declaration Forms to their passengers including crew members before arriving Nigerian airports.

The order is to all airlines operating international and regional flights into Nigeria. With the development, airlines have been made to remind passengers to provide factual address and phone numbers to enhance contact tracing in case there is need to do so.

The Health Declaration forms (Passenger self-reporting forms) are collected and evaluated by the personnel of Port Health Services on the arrival of the passengers and crew members alike.

On arrival at the airport, health officials are on standby to check body temperature of arriving travellers and any traveller with high temperature will be required to stay behind for further screenings.

The airport authorities have since intensified screenings on passengers coming from high risk countries where the virus has spread substantially.

Victoria Shin-Aba, manager, Murtala Murhammed International Airport, (MMIA), said the thermal cameras had been increased to ensure that every passenger was well screened and no one escapes screening.

Shin-Aba said that with more cameras, they would be able to capture the temperature of the passengers, thereby helping to reduce long queues and attend to all the passengers.

The airport manager assured Nigerians that if there was a confirmed case, the airport authority has in place an area where such one can be attended to.

People have had to cancel or delay their travel plans to other countries especially high risk countries.

The hospitality sector is already impacted as many flight cancelations are resulting in cancelation of accommodation bookings.

The situation, according to most hoteliers, is precarious as both international and local guests are cancelling hotel bookings even when the spread is curtailed.

The fear for many of them is that the hospitality sector, which is just recovering from the traditional January low season, is about being plunged into another low season occasioned by the scare for the coronavirus.

“We usually run below 40 percent occupancy during the low season, which last till early February. Now bookings are beginning to be impacted negatively and things might get worse if the spread of the virus is not curtailed on time,” Timothy Obla, a hotel manager explained.

Martins Okike, a rooms division manager is an international brand, noted that occupancy may fall below 20 percent if the virus spreads in the Nigeria because everybody including local and International guests and even hotel staff are conscious of their safety now.

If that happens, Obla noted that the situation in the hospitality industry would be worse than the Ebola and recession cases.  For him, occupancy rate has not been stable considering the hovering between 40-60 percent for a long time now, and anything that will make it fall below 40 percent should be avoided.

“We don’t pray for the virus to spread because nobody will visit your hotel, government and corporate guests are already drawing back. It is not going to be funny as revenue target for the first quarter has not been met and subsequent quarters will be more difficult to meet”, he lamented.

 

Anthony Nlebem, Ifeoma Okeke, and Anthonia Obokoh