Assessing The Implications and Future Perception of Biological Disaster a Covid 19 Pnademic on The Wellbeing of The Residents of Ekiti State

This research was done in order to assess the implication of covid-19 pandemic, a biological disaster, on the wellbeing of the Residents of Ekiti State and it is also to discover future perception of the residents towards biological disaster Preparedness and awareness. Well designed, open ended questionnaires were administered randomly to some residence of Ekiti State during the covid – 19 pandemic and lock down. The collected data were analyzed using simple frequency counts, percentages and chi-square. The negative impacts of covid – 19 according to findings were the loss of means of livelihood, restriction of movement, enforcement of the use of nose mask even when it was not convenient or appealing to the body, increased hunger and anxiety while the positive impacts included: better and cordial relationship among couples and families, compulsory and sufficient rest which improved the health conditions of the people. All impacts occurred unprepared for, consequently, biological disaster preparedness and management should be of paramount importance and concern to everyone and should be a national and community priority as part of the coping strategies in times future occurrence.


Introduction
Sickness and disease are important issues that have exercised human thought since the dawn of development.It was discovered that certain diseases that came on crops, wildlife, livestock and domesticated animals could also affect the well -being of human societies as they became more

International Journal for Disaster and Development Interface
Volume 3, Issue 2, October 2023, pp.49-67 DOI: https://doi.org/10.53824/ijddi.v3i2.58complex and as the population is increased.Tabatabaei et al (2015).The increase of population also resulted in the gathering of a large number of susceptible people in limited spaces.The larger communities became vulnerable through trans-species migration of infectious agents.Infectious agents with innate or acquired ability to spread from person to person caused extensive morbidity or mortality.
In recent times, the world is experiencing one of the most destructive and profound economic shocks from the field of disaster precisely biological disaster that displayed itself as covid-19 epidemic.
The damage the virus is unleashing is only by way of human infection.It may not have direct effect on the infrastructure like other natural disasters such as fire or rainstorms.Yet, the pandemonium COVID-19 has brought is more devastating than previously occurring disasters.This covid -19 virus has been categorized as biological disaster.
Biological disaster in the form of pandemics, epidemics have threatened human existence with associated mortality from ages.Some of these diseases have been fought to a standstill despite their significant threat throughout the world while the fight against some others are on -going.The fight against old infectious diseases such as the plague, Ebola, cholera, influenza, tuberculosis, hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, severe acute respiratory syndrome etc and the new infectious diseases, such as corona virus, have tremendously been yielding results.
The corona virus which originated from Wuhan in China had moved with speed to transcend beyond boundaries.The disease was discovered in 2019 and was also reported in late December 2019 and other parts of the world by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Huang, et al 2020;Qian et al, 2020).The number of confirmed cases reached 10,259,381 globally as at 29 th June 2020 and reported cases of 4,636 deaths.The daily update of the disease by the world health Organization indicated that the U.S.A and Brazil were severely affected by the COVID-19 with total cases of 2,637,077, with 128,437 and 1,345,254 deaths respectively which has been a major public health disaster (Worldometer, 2020).U.S.A bears the large burden of morbidity and mortality, followed by Brazil with 57,658 death cases whereas, the incidence in China country where the virus emerged dropped drastically (Hannah et al, 2020).COVID-19 has become a pandemic due to its outbreaks that become widespread as a result of the spread of human-to-human infection and its notable characteristics which included wide geographical extension, disease movement, novelty, severity, high attack rates and explosiveness, minimal population immunity, infectiousness and contagiousness.According to Qiu et al (2017), the word "Pandemic" originates from the Greek 'pan' meaning "all" and 'demos' meaning "the people ".The word is commonly referred to a widespread epidemic of contagious disease throughout the whole of a country or one or more continents at the same time.
The health risks of corona virus epidemic outbreak and the fear and panic that accompanies it has hampered the economy of individuals, national and global communities.As part of the effects created by the pandemic include; the overwhelming of the health system, limiting the capacity of all the various aspect of the nation , driving down and disrupting productivity, resulting to social distancing, closure of schools, enterprises, commercial establishments, transportation, and public services, all of which disrupted the economic and other social activities.
Thus far, the risk of COVID-19 importation from Europe to Africa is higher than the risk of importation from China (Oyelola et al, 2020) According to WHO, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which originated in China, has spread to several countries and territories.The number of new infections and deaths continues to rise rapidly in the world and, as yet, there are no signs of COVID-19 being brought under control.As a matter of fact, many countries around the globe have witnessed reduced economic activities in the first quarter of the year 2020 with many countries still fighting the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their economy till date.The COVID-19 pandemic is far more than an economic crisis because it affected every facet of the societies and health at their core.It has disturbed the political, social, economic, religious and financial structures of the whole world.While the impact of the pandemic varied from country to country, it will most likely increase poverty and inequalities at a global scale.Industrial facilities have been shut down in most of the affected continents and countries, and the global supply chain has been disrupted.Without urgent socio-economic responses, global misery will accelerate, endangering lives and livelihoods for years to come.Immediate development responses in this crisis must be undertaken with an eye on the future.COVID-19 is taking its toll in Nigeria causing deaths, illnesses and economic despair.Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is awakening to a new economic, social reality as well as already tackling its own challenges as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.The country of over 192 million people, recorded its first case on February 28, 2020.Since then, each day shows new cases reported.

Description and geographical location of the study area
The study area, Ekiti state is in the Southwest region of Nigeria, declared a state on 1st October 1996.The State is mainly an upland zone, rising over 250 meters above sea level.It lies on an area underlain by metamorphic rock.It is generally an undulating part of the country with a characteristic landscape that consists of old plains broken by step-sided out-crops that may occur singularly or in groups or ridges.Due to the fact that the study area is mainly upland area causes shortage of safe water in the state.This is in accordance with what WHO (2020) which stated that lack of safe water, inadequate excreta disposal facilities, poor hygiene, poor living conditions and unsafe food due to shortage of safe water can cause diseases that are major cause of suffering and death in an emergency Owing to the geographical location, the state faces little spread of covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, in the past , the proportionate large number of people or individual were affected with cholera, plague, tuberculosis etc (Fabamise et al, 2020;Ajoke et al, 2012).This research was done in order to assess the implication of covid-19 pandemic, a biological disaster, on the wellbeing of the   pandemic can be an incredibly stressful, disruptive and traumatic time for those affected, while whole communities can be wiped off, friends and family divided, homes and livelihoods canalso be lost.
Similarly, Noji(2001) said in the aftermath of such a disaster,deterioration of health condition may occur.People may experience a range of physical, psychological, emotional or behavioral reaction.
Trauma and grief will put personal, family and community relationships under pressure.Pandemics of various scales often occur and they lead to relationship breakdown, bereavement or loss of job.Many people suffer vicarious trauma because of their involvement with impacted households and communities through business, services, sport, schools and social connections.
Biological disastersjeopardize economic growth, normal routines and commercial activities Noji (2001).Covid -19 declining economic activity and large drops in capital markets have a mutually reinforcing impact, undermining the capacity of heavily indebted businesses and households to cover their debts Riyanti et al ( 2020).Long term occurrence of biological disaster in the form of epidemic or pandemic in a region, may discourage long-term investments by the government and private sector alike.It may also cause damages and losses to the natural heritage and the endangered fauna and flora UNISDR (2017).Also, as part of the effect of the continuous occurrence of biological disaster, it results into the migration of skilled labor,delay in developmentalprogrammesand inflation.Sorin (2020) from his study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused various impacts on the environment both negative and positive.Positive impacts such as enhanced air and water quality in urban areas, and negative, such as shoreline pollution due to the disposal of sanitary consumables.In addition, the ability of a nation or continent to recover from a biological disaster like covid-19 reflects its underlying functioning capability.Communities that function well in everyday life, with strong social connections and plentiful resources will often be most resilient when facing a crisis.

Materials and Method
This research was intended to discover the implication of COVID-19 Pandemic, a biological disaster: on the residents of Ekiti State and it is also to discover future perception of the residents towards biological disaster Preparedness and awareness.A cross-sectional study was performed from 12 th June 2020 until 26th July 2020, using a self-administered and well-designed questionnaire which was distributed randomly among some residents in Ekiti State.The respondents were mainly adults between18 years and above were considered from the study location who were within the state during both pre -COVID-19 and throughout COVID-19 pandemic lock down period.The questionnaire consisted of 25 questions divided into three sections.The questionnaire was designed in accordance with the objectives of the study.A convenience and purposeful sampling of participants was used to select questionnaire respondents.Purposeful sampling is a technique widely used in qualitative research for the identification and selection of information-rich cases for the most effective use of limited resources (Lawrence et al, 2016).
The data collected from the study was analyzed using simple frequency counts, percentages and chi-square.Section A solicited data on demographics such as gender, marital status, occupation  Tables 1 presents the socio-demographic characteristics of the study participants.The result shows that majority of the respondents were female; 57%.Most of the participants (44%) were in the age range of 41-50 years.Most of the study participants were married (81.5%).Distribution of respondents according to their occupation shows that most of respondents (68%) were civil servants.

Results and Discussion
While more than three-quarters of the respondents had B.Sc/HND certificates.representing the majority indicated 5years and above while 29.5% reported 3-4years.About half of the sample (51%) had good knowledge of covid-19 pandemic outbreak while 34.5% and 14.5% reported average and very poor level of knowledge of the pandemic respectively.Regarding the preventive measures adopted by the sample participants during covid-19 epidemic, majority of the respondents (75.5%) used nose mask, closely followed by the use of sanitizer (10%), social distancing (9.5%) while regular hand washing (5%) was the least in the ranking order.More than two-third (71.5%) respondents were not convenient using the nose mask while 73.4% said that it disallows proper breathing.More than half of the total sample; 61.5% indicated available but costly sanitizer.Out of 56.5% respondents who supported the closure of religious centers during covid-19, 33.6% said it will reduce the spread of the disease.respondents with irregular payment of salary adopted coping strategy of managing the available resources at their disposal and seeking assistance from neighbours.Thirty-eight percent (38%) respondents indicated participation in the organized school on air programme.Assessing the effectiveness of the programme, 38.2% and 61.8% of them reported 'very effective' and 'fair' respectively.The respondents suggested the following ways of re-opening schools without subjecting students and staff to the risks: discovery of drug for curing covid-19 (45.3%), following the rules and regulations from the government and NCDC (44.2%) and total eradication of the pandemic and provision of the vaccines (10.5%).

Conclusion
Our communities are faced with a number of health hazards, covid -19 inclusive which threaten our collective survival as the impacts crosses boundaries.The impacts of covid -19 are both positive and negative.Among the negative impacts of the covid -19 pandemic, a biological disaster, were the loss of means of livelihood, restriction of movement, use of nose mask even when it was not convenient or appealing to the body, increase hunger and anxiety while the positive impacts include: better relationship among couples and families, compulsory and sufficient rest which improved the health condition of the people.Therefore, biological disaster preparedness and management should be of paramount importance and concern to everyone and should be a national and community priority as part of the coping strategies in times future occurrence.When necessary things are not put in place prior to or during emergency or disaster situations, many damages are caused.Disaster preparedness must be the top priority of all communities and the local healthcare system must be equipped and well organize to provide immediate response to cater for people whenever there is an outbreak of diseases and also to provide adequate training and drills related to anti-epidemic activities to healthcare teams and the public.The government is also enjoyed to provide quick intervention in terms of provision of resources and other necessary supports.
.The COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (Sheikh et al, 2020).The first confirmed case in Nigeria was announced on 27 February 2020, when an Italian citizen in Lagos tested positive for the virus (Oyelola et al, 2020).The individual landed at Lagos airport 2 days earlier on a flight from northern Italy, and subsequently travelled from Lagos to Ogun State, western Nigeria, where he became ill, promptly isolated and treated for mild symptoms of COVID-19 in a hospital in Lagos which prompted National Emergency Operation Centres to immediately activate to trace his contacts (Bassey et al, 2020).As at June 30, 2020, a total of 25, 694 cases have been confirmed with 590 deaths recorded in 35 states across the country according to Nigeria Center for Diseases Control.(NCDC).

Figure. 1 :
Figure.1: Daily change of covid-19 in Nigeria situation.Covid -19 is closely related to water and sanitation.The State enjoys tropical climate of two distinct seasons of the wet (April-October) and dry (November-March) seasons.Temperature ranges between 21 o Cand 28 o C with high humidity.Because of the favorable climatic conditions, the land witnesses low spread of the disease.Noted that cold and influenza viruses cannot spread in warmer summer time as air naturally hold more moisture and virus particles don't travel as far in the humidity.The State is located within Latitudes 70151 and 8051 North of the Equator and within Longitudes 40451 and 50451 East of the Greenwich Meridian which lead to the lack of viral activity in country like Nigeria with high temperature and high relative humidity that is why they do not have major community outbreaks of SARS, and why they have found it easier to manage the covid -19 outbreak.According to Carl and Tom (2020), the impacts of covid-19 on the country is associated with the relationship to seasonality, weather conditions and latitudes of such country which provides evidence that environmental factors have impact on the transmission of SARs-CoV-2.The State lays South of Kwara and Kogi States as well as East of Osun State.It is bounded in the East and South by Ondo State and was carved out of the old Ondo State on October 1 st 1996.It comprises of sixteen (16) Local Government (Ogundele et al, 2013).Indeed, education is the most viable industry of the people of Ekiti State, hence the people are in the forefront of educational development with about 141 public secondary schools apart from the school established to cater for specific purposes like special school for the disabled.
Residents of Ekiti State and to give recommendations for the effective biological disaster preparedness based on the research findings.

Figure. 2 :
Figure.2: Map of cases as at 8 th July 2020 profession and educational qualification while section B focused on Incidence of biological disaster: A COVID-19 Pandemic and level of knowledge or awareness of the residents about COVID-19 Pandemics.Section C contained questions about the Implications (impacts) of COVID-19 Pandemic on the wellbeing of the residents while section D checked on coping strategies adopted by the residents of Ekiti State to combat the impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic.

2 Emerging of large scale biological disasters of 21 st century: Factors and Impacts Emerging
Bupesh (2014)(2019)ce of COVID -19 Pandemic, a biological disaster in Ekiti State?(ii) what are the levels of awareness of the residents of Ekiti State about a biological disaster known as COVID-19 Pandemic?(iii)what are the implications of biological disaster: A COVID-19 Pandemic on the wellbeing of Ekiti residents?(iv)whatare the coping strategies adopted by the residents of Ekiti State to combat the impacts of biological disaster: A COVID-19 Pandemic?Biological disasters are scenarios involving disease, disability or death on a large scale among humans, animals and plants due to toxins or disease caused by living organisms or their products.Such disasters may be natural in the form of epidemics or pandemics of existing, emerging or reemerging diseases and pestilences or man-made by the intentional use of disease causing agents in Biological Warfare (BW) operations or incidents of Bioterrorism (BT) National Disaster Management Guidelines (2008).Another name for biological disaster is an Infectious disease disasters which are different from other types of disasters because they increase the risk of communicable disease spread during and after the incident.Biological Disaster leads to mass mortality due to the entry of virulent microbes into a congregation of susceptible people living in a manner suited to the spread of infection Bupesh (2014).Biological disasters are in form of Epidemics such asPest attacks, Cattle epidemics and Food poisoning Shi (2019).These are caused by the exposure to pathogenic micro-organisms, toxins and bioactive substances or they are caused by an enormous spread of disease viruses or infestation of plant, animal or insect life at an epidemic or pandemic level which may cause the loss of life or injury, property damage, social and economic disruption or environmental degradation, loss of livelihoods and servicesCRED (2009).Terri (2018) explained that the broad range of potential biological disaster agents are bacteria, viruses, and toxins (of microbial, plant, or animal origin) with common characteristics of having (i) the ability to be dispersed in aerosols of 1 to 5 micronized particles, which can penetrate the of biological disasters outbreaks have occurred throughout recorded history and this poses a risk to animals, including livestock, and to plants.Nevertheless, in this research, we are centering on human health.Examples are the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in West Africa in 2013-2016, 2018-2019 the largest epidemic of its kind to date in the populations of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria etc. Biological disasters can have natural or manmade sources.Looking at this critically reveals thatmost of what we generally considered to be "natural disasters" cannot be regarded completely as being free of human activities which can either be intentional or accidental.Gunnar et al (2019)explained that disaster like flood can cause disastrous consequences and endanger lives by causing the spread of epidemic diseases when dams were poorly constructed or damaged as a result of undesirable human activities.Hence, potential disastrous consequences from natural sources can be mitigated by increasing awareness and response.While some diseases can still literally creep out of the jungle, some sort of human activity is still needed to induce the infection mechanism, be it by the consumption of bush meet or by eating fruit that infected animals had contaminated.Building in flood prone areas can contaminate the supply of water through downstream leading to the spread of diseases.According toBupesh (2014), the Intentional or accidental human behavioral patterns such as the release of airborne chemical, biological and radiological agents play a role in the spread of disease (biological disasters) which pose significant threat to the counter places such as hospitals, laboratories, health care units and industries that handle patients, patient samples and other materials.
Ackerman et al (2006).1 Covid -19 pandemicas a Biological disastersThe COVID-19 pandemic has been widely referred to as a disaster or even catastrophe.It is a disaster because it is a natural tragedy having unfortunate consequences on human.Epidemics or pandemics are biological disaster.According toOgunleye et al (2019), disaster refers to an emergency and overwhelming events that involve destructions causing injury and loss of lives which is caused by natural hazards or human induced actions resulting in a significant change in circumstances over a relatively short time period such as death, displacement, disease, and loss of crops, damage to physical and service infrastructure, depletion of natural and social capitals, institutional weakening and a general disruption of economic and social activity.Disasters can be natural or manmade Mörner (2010).Natural disaster can further be subdivided into 5 subgroups as: geophysical (e.g.earthquake, landslide,); meteorological (e.g.storm); hydrological (e.g.flood, drought); climatological (e.g.heatwave, windstorm) and biological (e.g.epidemic)Olga (2014).Biological emergencies or disasters are regularly associated with large-scale disease.distalbronchioles,(ii) the ability to deliver these aerosols with simple technology, (iii) the feasibility of these agents, if delivered from a line source (e.g., an airplane) upwind from the target, to infect large numbers of the population and (iv) the ability to spread infection, disease, panic, and fear.They involve the need for specialized mitigation, planning, and response interventions to prevent and control the spread of diseases.2.tetanus and cutaneous mucormycosis can result from prolonged secondary effects of natural disasters like floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, tropical cyclones (e.g., hurricanes and typhoons) and tornadoes when they result in substantial population displacement and exacerbate synergic risk factors (change in the environment, in human conditions and in the vulnerability to existing pathogens)of major natural disasters.Ackerman et al (2006)and Sorin etal (2020) opined that the past occurrences of biological disasters/ emergencies in North America had relationship with animal origins with which the country was adversely affected by emerging animal disease outbreaks such anthrax, classical swine fever, bluetongue, brucellosis, foot and mouth disease, plague, hantavirus, monkeypox, West Nile virus, Avian flu (bird flu), Zika fever and ebola virus.Emergency situations such as biological disease like covid-19

Are you lockdown in your area during covid- 19 outbreaks
were made: increased hunger and anxiety (62%), getting sufficient sleep (13.5%) and increased better relationship between children and couples (24.5%).Over 95% of the total sound health for their family members during covid-19 lockdown while 67% agreed that it has fostered family relationship.However, the 90% of the study participants reported high cost of living during the epidemic.

Table 4
presents the coping strategies adopted by the residents of Ekiti State to combat the impacts of covid-19 pandemic.The result shows that only 19% received relief package from government or any organization or individual during covid-19 to cushion the effects.With regards to the best community-based education strategies on covid-19 control, 37% suggested sensitization through non-governmental organization while 29.5%, 28.5% and 5% indicated sensitization through health practitioners, use of media such radio/tv and covid-19 task force respectively.The sample indicated the following levels of government involvement and response on covid-19 control: excellent (15%), good (28.5%),fair (42.5%) and poor (14%).Majority of the respondents (95.5%) reported payment of salary during covid-19 lockdown, 90.1% reported payment regularity while 9.9%