The Federal Government has put on hold the planned evacuation of 200 Nigerians stranded in Canada as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak.
The evacuation had been scheduled on Wednesday, May 13.
In a statement on Monday, the Nigeria High Commission in Canada had stated that arrangements had been concluded with Air Peace Airline for the airlifting of the passengers.
However, following the announcement by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, on Monday, that the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) on Covid-19 had reached its limits in terms of bed space due to the evacuation of 678 Nigerians from United Arab Emirate (UAE), United Kingdom (UK) and United States ((U.S) in the last one week, the Federal Government announced a halt on further evacuation.
He said further airlifting would have to wait until the returnees currently in isolation centres are discharged.
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According to him, the accommodation available to PTF was 600 coupled with medical advice against overstretching the personnel at the isolation facilities.
The cancelation was announced in a statement by the spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Ferdinald Nwoye, on Tuesday.
He said: “The planned evacuation has been cancelled with no new date to be announced.”
The flight had been scheduled to pick the prospective passengers from two locations in Toronto and Alberta.
