The NCDC boss said this on Thursday in Abuja at the 48th joint national briefing of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19.

“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 have 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,” Ihekweazu said.

He said that as the nation plan over the next few weeks or months, citizens have to remember that there are still restrictions on mass gatherings, but that everyone has to show the elderly citizens love and affection by not exposing them to the virus.