The U.S. has evacuated its citizen who tested positive for COVID-19 in Nigeria and was being treated at the Infectious Disease Centre in Lagos, an official has said.
Akin Abayomi, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, provided the information on his Twitter handle on Wednesday.
Mr Abayomi said eight patients out of the 82 confirmed cases in Lagos have been discharged from the isolation facility following their full recovery while an American has been evacuated.
“One of the confirmed case who is an American citizen has been evacuated to USA,” Mr Abayomi, a professor, who coordinates the Lagos government’s COVID-19 response, said.
The U.S. government had earlier said it was preparing evacuation flights for its citizens in Nigeria due to COVID-19.
In a notice released last Friday by the U.S. Consulate tagged ‘Health Alert’, U.S. citizens were told to prepare to join the arranged flights that would evacuate them from Nigeria, PUNCH newspaper reported.
U.S. citizens in different states of Nigeria were enjoined to find their way to Abuja and Lagos for the evacuation process.
“We will email US citizens immediately once we have flights details, routes, and costs,” the notice read.
Mr Abayomi has now confirmed that the U.S. citizen in the Lagos government facility has been evacuated.
The U.S., like Nigeria and the rest of the world, is currently battling the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation is, however, worse in the U.S. where over 200,000 people have been infected and over 5,000 dead.
U.S. deaths from the virus are projected to rise to over 100,000 in the next few weeks as various American states battle with insufficient equipment to treat patients.
In Nigeria, 174 people have tested positive for the virus including two deaths.
Lagos is still the state with the highest confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country with 91 cases out of the total 174 cases nationwide, followed by Abuja which has 35 cases.
Twelve states and Abuja have confirmed cases of coronavirus out of the 36 states in Nigeria. The health authorities have also said more cases will be recorded as contact tracing continues nationwide.
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