Easter Weekend Will Be The Hardest For Us – NCDC Boss

The Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, has urged Nigerians to continue to support the Federal Government in the fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.

Ihekweazu made the appeal in his remarks at the briefing of the Presidential Task Force on of COVID-19 which held on Friday in Abuja.

He admitted that it would be quite tough to celebrate Easter in the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the measures put in place by the government to curb its spread.

The NCDC boss, however, stressed that the restriction order on social gatherings – including in churches and mosques – was in the best interest of the nation.

He said:

“We are socially intense people, we live on social interaction; we are known across the world for our music, our dance, our drama.

“We hold our religious gatherings very dear to our hearts and there is no weekend more important for Christianity than this weekend.”

“There is no weekend that Christians are called upon to come together than this weekend. So, there is no weekend this will be hardest for us, the Christians amongst the Nigerian population, than this weekend.

“So, I really call on all of us – Nigerian Christians, Muslims, and whatever the religion that you have, we need to pay a short term price for a long term goal and physical distancing is probably the most important tool,” he stressed.