The Federal Government said the ongoing evacuation of Nigerians in Diasporas as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic would end on Saturday, August 22, 2020.

The disclosure was made by the Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, during a press briefing in Abuja yesterday where he said the stoppage of evacuation will enable the nation’s airports to have sufficient time to prepare for reopening.

Mustapha also said that some countries, such as the United States of America, United Arab Emirates and Egypt, had expressed their willingness to repatriate convicted Nigerians, who had been pardoned and paroled. In his words:

“A number of countries have signified intention to repatriate Nigerians convicted and pardoned and paroled in those countries. They include the UAE, Egypt and the United States of America.

“Coming in the midst of our national response to COVID-19, all relevant agencies of government are taking multi-sector steps to ensure that the process remains within acceptable international protocols and in line with bilateral agreements.

“For the purpose of clarity, this should be distinguished from the normal evacuation flights and we wish to state that all evacuation flights will end on August 22, 2020, after which the airports will be given sufficient time to prepare for reopening.”

Mustapha who noted that the PTF had continued to observe “noticeable decline in fatalities, high discharge rates and consistent under 500 daily cases” for the past four weeks despite the huge increase in testing capacity and increase in the number of daily tests conducted, however, said the nation is yet to attain the desired level that would enable the PTF to make conclusive statements on the rate of infection in the country and he advised:

“We must, therefore, continue to do that which is giving us record improvements and desist from actions capable of undermining our successes.”

However, the PTF’s National Coordinator, Sani Aliyu, said that the August 29 date proposed for the resumption of international flights was not sacrosanct adding that the low level of positive cases did not indicate that the virus has gone.  Aliyu also said that there is need for more people to be tested.