COVID-19: Don’t Travel For Sallah, NCDC Warns Nigerians

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has warned Muslims to shelve plans of the usual Eid-el-Kabir celebrations travel next week.
NCDC Head of Risk Communications Division, Dr Yahya Disu, handed down the warning on Wednesday during Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ breakfast show.

Disu pointed out that the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic started in Nigeria because people travelled for Christmas last December.

He, therefore, urged Nigerians to avoid unnecessary trips as Sallah celebrations hold next week.

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Disu said,
“More importantly, Sallah is coming when people just travel and that makes the risk higher in villages, in different parts of the country. So, we need to warn people: they don’t need to travel if it is not necessary, you can celebrate where you are. During Sallah, we go to mosque in large numbers but this is the time we need to be very cautious.

“We are working with the religious organisations. The second wave in Nigeria started because of Christmas, because people travelled for Christmas. So, we can avoid it, we can learn from it. A life that we lost is very important for every one of us, it could be anybody. So, it is not worth it to lose a life because we want to celebrate Sallah or Christmas.”