Dawit Adugna, in his mid-20s, works at a restaurant located near Mexico Square, almost 10Km away from where he lives in Ferensay Legasion. He earns 2,000 Br each month and an average of 1,500 Br from tips.

Dawit was an engineering student at the Addis Abeba Institute of Technology before he dropped out three years ago to look for job opportunities to help himself and his family. He finally settled on working as a waiter. He then aspired to continue his education along with his work.

After he started working at the restaurant, he wanted to divert into studying business from engineering.

“Since I was hired as a waiter," he said, "I've become more and more interested in the business sector."

He then decided to continue education in a business-related field hoping that one day he could operate his own business and succeed.

Life went on as usual for him until the onset of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). He was going to class while also working at the restaurant. He used to get an average of 2,000 Br from tips before the pandemic, which has battered all businesses across the globe.

After covering all his basic needs, Dawit was studying business management at a private university, paying 6,000 Br in tuition each semester.

Dawit also pays 1,500 Br in house rent each month. He does not spend money on food since his employer serves him three meals a day. His other expense is transportation.

The pandemic, which has infected over 27 million people and killed close to 700,000 people worldwide, has not only affected the income he used to get from tips but has imposed other burdens as well. He spends long hours on public transportation, which currently costs double the pre-pandemic rate.

Transportation fees were doubled after the government decided that public vehicles had to be restricted to half of their loading capacity in order to curb the spread of the virus, which was first reported in the country in mid-March 2020.

He used to spend 16 Br to 20 Br a day for transportation to and from his home and workplace. He travels through two or three corridors. But now he is spending 35 Br a day on average. He sometimes uses a contract taxi for around 100 Br so as not to be late to his workplace.

Dawit spends on average an hour to an hour and a half on long queues waiting for taxis. He has to appear at his workplace early in the morning at 7:30am, meaning he has to wake up at 6:00am.

“The crowds at taxi stations are ludicrous, especially in the morning and evening,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.”

Dawit says the situation gets worse during evenings since the number of taxis that provide public transportation service declines significantly after sun down. To catch a taxi he has to walk to different taxi stations in the evening. He sometimes walks from Mexico down to Stadium, Estifanos and other taxi stations hoping to find a taxi.

“Walking during the night is also frightening and not safe,” he said.

Dawit shares these challenges with the 2.7 million residents of Addis Abeba who use public transport. The latest problem has only added to the existing transportation problems in the capital, which is well-known for its extreme traffic.

For years, Addis has been suffering from a shortage of public transportation vehicles, and long queues at the taxi and public transport stations have become very common sights across the city. But the problem has worsened since the intrusion of the pandemic and the government's reactions to the virus.

The city has a total of 16,118 vehicles that are registered to provide public transport service; however, only 64pc of them are currently operational and serving the 2.7 million residents in the capital.

Adding salt to the wound, these public transport service providers operate at only half of their capacity. The directive at fault was issued by the ministerial council that was formed to execute the state of emergency laws to contain the spread of the virus. Those who offend this law will be fined 5,000 Br. With the new tariff, the city’s shortest fare is three Br and the longest is 12 Br.

Of all operational vehicles, 5,814 and 2,932 are minibuses that operate with Code 01 and Code 02 plates, which are restricted to carrying half the typical number of passengers. The remaining 1,521 operate Anbessa, Sheger, UD and Public Service buses, and they are allowed to operate at full capacity but not allowed to load standing passengers.

Even though the new directive was enacted in an effort to contain the transmission of the pandemic through physical distancing measures, it resulted in unintended consequences by bringing additional problems to urban public transport, according to Aregawi Maru, public relations & communications head at the City's Transport Bureau.

"It introduced additional problems on top of the existing problems," said Aregawi. “The movement of people from place to place didn’t decrease as we anticipated. It rather complicated the already existing problem.”