COVID-19: Another 160 Nigerians depart US for Abuja 

Another batch of 160 Nigerians stranded in the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic are on their way to Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 160 Nigerians, including eight infants, made the first batch of evacuees from the US.

DAILY POST recalls that the first batch of Nigerians from the UK arrived Nigeria on Friday.

The returnees are aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 aircraft under the special flight arrangements by the Nigerian Government.

Temperature checks were conducted on the passengers in line with the government’s pre-departure infection prevention control guidelines.

The plane departed the Newark International Airport, New Jersey, on Saturday around 8:20 pm local time (1:20 am) and expected to arrive the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, around noon on Sunday.

The returnees on arrival would be quarantined for 14 days in Abuja before leaving for their respective destinations.

At the airport to coordinate the departure activities were officials of the Nigerian consulate in New York, led by the Consul-General, Mr Benaoyagha Okoyen, Amb. Tijani Muhammad-Bande, President of the United Nations General Assembly and Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN.

He was joined by Amb. Samson Itegboje, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, among others.

Meanwhile, Nigeria as at Saturday recorded 239 cases of coronavirus.

The tally of confirmed CIVID-19 cases now stands at 4151.