The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has blamed youths for the
transmission of Coronavirus and infecting the elderly across the country,.
It said younger people of between ages 20 to 40 were responsible for driving the transmission of the virus, leaving people of ages 50 and above to bear the brunt.
The NCDC Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, said at Thursday’s media briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 that three out of five of people who die from COVID-19 are 50 years and above.
“I just want to touch very slightly, very briefly, on our increasing understanding of the transmission dynamics of this virus.
“As more people are infected across the world, you would have seen the numbers 10 million, it’s 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 out elderly.
“Why do I say this now? We are on the verge of opening our flights, airports, we have relaxed Intercity travel. We know that we have 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, and others that we have postponed for months.
“Yes, it’s 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,”
Ihekweazu said.
The NCDC DG pleaded:“So as we plan over the next few weeks or months, we have to remember that there are still restrictions on mass gatherings, but beyond that we really have to show our elderly citizens love and affection by not exposing them to these viruses as much as we possibly can.
“In some cases is completely impossible, many of us know very good number of people that have taken extreme care, that have been extremely careful and yet have become infected.
“For some people it is inevitable because of the nature of this virus, but we must not contribute to increasing that risk.
“Looking through social media today. I saw a brilliant campaign in Edo state, it was titled ‘our elders, our pride.’ For this to mean something for all of us,
we have to put this into action.”
He said NCDC had published new guidelines and advisories for vulnerable people to protect and educate them on safety measures.
Ihekweazu advised people to endeavour to print it out the guidelines or log on to the NCDC website: covid-19@ncdc.gov.ng.
“But I am really looking forward to working with you and really think through the theme of this campaign in Edo, ‘our Elders, our Pride’, if it means something to you take it to heart, wear a mask, postpone travels, avoid mass gatherings, wash your hands.“
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