COVID-19: FG approves last evacuation flight from U.S.

The Federal Government has approved the ninth and last evacuation flight for Nigerians stranded in the United States due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

The Consul General of Nigeria in New York, Mr Benaoyagha Okoyen, announced this in a statement dated Aug. 10, 2020, on behalf of the country’s missions in the U.S.

According to the statement, the flight is scheduled to convey the evacuees from New Jersey on Aug. 20 to both Abuja and Lagos.

This would come after the seventh and eight evacuation flights scheduled for Aug. 15 and Aug. 19 respectively from Houston, Texas, to Lagos.

The government had so far evacuated 1,739 stranded Nigerian citizens in six special flights from the U.S. which is witnessing a second wave of coronavirus infections.

That country’s COVID-19 tallies as at Monday stood at 5,044,864 infections with 162,938 deaths, according to data compiled by the John Hopkins University of Medicine.