…says older citizens bearing consequences of their carefree disposition
Federal Government says Nigerian youths are spreading and infecting older people who are now bearing the brunt of the deadly COVID-19.
It accused youths between the ages of 20 and 40 to be largely responsible for spreading the virus, with the older people from 50 years and above had been suffering the consequence of their carefree actions.
Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, made this accusation on Thursday in Abuja at the 48th joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
He noted that three out of every five people losing their lives to COVID-19 were people from 50 years and above.
The NCDC boss, therefore, warned that the youths must take measures to protect the old who are susceptible to the raging virus.
According to him, “As more people are infected across the world, you would have seen the numbers; it is increasingly obvious that transmission among younger people really, not children, but people aged between 20 and 40 as far as we know, are really driving the spread of this virus, but those that are bearing the brunt of it are people age 50 and above.
“Three out of five people who died from COVID-19 are 50 and above. So, we have to work harder, all of us, collectively, to protect our elderly.
“We are on the verge of opening our airports; we have relaxed Intercity travel.
“We know that we are a family-loving people and that over the next few weeks we will all start having this urge to go and visit our parents, our, uncles, our aunts, restart the funeral activities that we have postponed for months, start the weddings, birthing, baptisms that we have postponed for months.
“It is important to do these things and the interstate travel will allow us to do this, but remember we haven’t relaxed the guidelines of mass gatherings.”
The NCDC boss added that as the nation planned over the next few weeks or months, citizens must remember that there are still restrictions on mass gatherings.He appealed to everyone to show the elderly citizens love and affection by not exposing them to the virus.