**1.2 Covid-19 transmission modes and implications for management of the environment of maritime transport and ports**

The Nigerian center for infectious disease control [7, 8] identified two major modes of transmission of Covid-19 disease to include:


The implication of this in the management of Covid-19 in the maritime environment is that the mode specific transmission mean/routes must be identified and

*Harnessing the Environment of Maritime Transport and Port Logistics Sector… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101587*

**Figure 3.** *Indirect (object-to-person) transmission of Covid-19. Source: Adapted from Bangladesh Maritime Authority [9].*

barriers/shields built against it these transmission means and routes of transmission. The transmission barriers and/or shields takes the forms of regulatory instruments aimed at regulating the behavior of operators and manners of operations and use of equipment to yield expected outcomes. The expected outcomes being to break the transmission curve and achieve a Covid-19 free maritime environment and society. Implementing the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and developing policies that limit risky behavior is also important. While the practice of 14 days quarantining cum isolation and treated of confirm cases in line WHO [5] guidelines will apply to human agents (seafarers and maritime workers), massive disinfection of non-human agents (cargo, ship surfaces, superstructures, equipment, etc.) is applied in management and treatment of such non-human agent. But since it is impossible to determine which non-human agents are already contaminated with the virus, risk assessment based on ship exposure to ports in regions with confirmed cases becomes necessary such that all such objects and ships identified as having visited a high risk region is mandatorily quarantined and disinfected before being allowed access to seaports. Based on the very nature of ship movements and the structure of the maritime industry operations, we identified Covid-19 transmission routes in the maritime industry for purposes of developing transmission barriers as a management strategy as follows;

i. External transmission routes: This is the transmission and infection of healthy ship and/or the occupant seafarers and objects onboard by parties external to the ship at any given point in time. It equally denotes a situation where an infected ships or crew transmits and infects healthy ports, settlements and other healthy ships with which it had contact. See **Figure 4** for a pictograph example of external route/channel Covid-19 transmission routes in the maritime industry.

Major types of external Covid-19 transmission routes in the maritime industry include:


#### **Figure 4.**

*Pictograph showing external Covid-19 transmission routes/channels in the maritime industry. Source: Nwokedi [3]. Note: The direction of the arrows is reversed in the case that an infected ship is transmitting and infecting healthy ports, urban settlements and other healthy ships.*


Major types of internal Covid-19 transmission routes in the maritime industry include:


Identifying clearly the transmission routes in the maritime industry enables route specific Covid-19 transmission and exposure risk analysis to be carried-out and the likelihood/probability of transmission of and exposure to Covid-19 determined for both external and internal routes. All routes may thus be presented in term of the hierarchy of the probability transmission and exposure risks to guide operations and operators in the industry. For indirect transmission, disinfection by use of approved sanitizing agents in line with WHO guideline can be carried prioritizing high risk routes. Quarantining seafarers and other industry personnel from high risk areas for 14 day and isolation of confirmed cased followed by treatment in line with WHO guidelines is adopted in managing direct human to human transmissions. As can be seen both the external and internal routes of Covid-19 transmission and infection

*Harnessing the Environment of Maritime Transport and Port Logistics Sector… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101587*

#### **Figure 5.**

*Source: Nwokedi [3]. Note: The direction of the arrows indicating the direction of transmission is reversed in the case that an infected sub component of the seaport system is transmitting and infecting healthy port authority staff and other healthy sub-components of the port as identified in Figure 1.*

spread in the maritime industry revolve around object transmission and human transmission. This suggests that among other things, high risk transmission and infection routes should prioritized in the serious implementation of the guidelines for the management of both direct and indirect transmission in the maritime transport sub-sector in Nigeria. The development of a framework for the management and control of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Nigerian environment of maritime transport will considered in the subsequent sections of the chapter.

The identified external and internal routes/channels of transmission among the built environment of the maritime transport and shipping sector further suggests a transmission-route specific approaches can be developed involving holistically all the components of the built environment of maritime transport including seaports, ships, shipyards, shipping companies and all the components earlier identified. This should commence with Covid-19 infection risk assessment in which a proximity based model may be used to assess risk of exposure of each port facility, ship, company facility, etc. to risk of Covid-19 infection. Higher level of caution and preventive strategies in line with WHO guidelines will thus be adopted by ships when calling to a port facility with higher risk of infection while ships with higher risk of infection determined by their proximity and duration and frequency of call to high risk ports are quarantined in line with available regulations as they call to healthy ports. To effectively curtail the transmission and spread of Covid-19 disease within the maritime sub-sector and between the maritime environment and residential settlements beyond the maritime

environment, there is serious need for each component of the built environment in the maritime sector representing a node and/or point of transmission and infection development node specific strategies in line with general guidelines. This will equally be useful in determining the risk of exposure and infection at each specific node and other interacting nodes. See **Figure 6**:

Based on the above interaction model above, proactive management approach should be adopted where: At Node-A Seaport authority should:


#### **Figure 6.**

*Built environment of maritime transport and non-work residential settlements interaction model depicting Covid-19 transmission and infection nodes as it affects the maritime industry. Source: Nwokedi [3].*

*Harnessing the Environment of Maritime Transport and Port Logistics Sector… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101587*


At Node-B, Port users and other interest groups (e.g.: seafarers and their families, families of dockworkers and agencies personnel in ports, etc.) that interact with the built environment of the maritime transport from residential settlements represent potential transmission agents captured in node-B. To prevent transmission and infection from these groups requires that:


At Node-C, Ships of various kinds calling to seaports and the ship-owners takes responsible of the fight against the spread of the Covid-19 disease. It is expected that each ship must develop strategic action plans aimed at not only avoiding being infected in course of interaction with ports, settlements and other maritime industry stakeholders, but to ensure that the ship, the crew and the objects on board does not transmit and infects healthy ports and residential settlements with the disease. To ensure this, each ship should:


At node-D, shipping companies, custom bases, multimodal transport bays, terminal operators and other stakeholders in the maritime industry have responsible to manage and prevent the spread of the Covid-19 disease by implementing the port authority regulations designed for each group of operators as well as company specific prevention rules, in line with the guidelines of the WHO. Each company and agency in this category should:


It is important to note the similarity between the approach to Covid-19 prevention in the maritime industry and the international ship and port facility security (ISPS) code implementation approach which outlines the roles of all interacting stakeholders in the security architecture of the maritime industry [10]. Government may thus for an apex organization enforcing and supervising the overall implementation of the Covid-19 prevention rules across the maritime industry through the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the port health (PH) and National center for disease control (NCDC).
