most effective nine of the people evacuated from Afghanistan to the U.S. seeing that the Taliban takeover have confirmed wonderful for COVID-19, in keeping with a govt document obtained by using Yahoo information. even so, COVID processes and trying out have slowed down the processing of evacuees, in keeping with the doc.
Pentagon officers pointed out Tuesday morning that the U.S. military has evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of about 58,seven hundred individuals from Afghanistan for the reason that it begun emergency airlift operations from the Kabul airport on Aug. 14. At a press briefing at the Pentagon, army Maj. Gen. William Taylor pointed out 21,600 individuals departed Kabul within the remaining 24 hours, with one aircraft leaving the Afghan capital roughly each 45 minutes. during that point, Taylor referred to, an additional four flights carrying greater than 1,000 passengers have landed at Dulles overseas Airport near Washington, D.C.
households board a U.S. Air drive plane at Hamid Karzai international Airport in Kabul on Monday. (Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/U.S. Marine Corps/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The doc — a government replace sent to the White house Monday night and marked "For official use best" — offers new details about the variety of evacuees who have been transported to the USA from Afghanistan, and the challenges involved in managing COVID-19 screening for evacuees. The doc states that between Aug. 17 and Monday afternoon, 21 flights carrying a total of four,393 evacuees from Afghanistan — including 44 militia carrier canine — had arrived at Dulles.
The Pentagon, the department of health and Human features and the foreign corporation for Migration "are still deciding upon methods for transitioning evacuees that check fine for COVID-19," the document says.
according to the document, evacuees who supply proof of a poor verify within 72 hours are not required to be retested upon arrival in the u.s., an exemption it really is assisting increase processing times. although, the document notes that it continues to be "taking longer than expected for evacuees to disembark planes for trying out and customs processing" as a result of a mixture of elements, together with delays in U.S. Customs and Border insurance plan brokers receiving flight manifests, unspecified countrywide security concerns, evacuees now not having achieved a CDC COVID-19 form prior to landing, and other concerns regarding opting for which evacuees require testing upon arrival.
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The percent of evacuees who've proof of a fresh negative look at various varies from flight to flight. The 9 superb COVID-19 instances were out of 3,293 evacuees who'd been validated on-web page at Dulles up to now.
Afghan refugees after arriving on a flight at Dulles overseas Airport close Washington, D.C., on Monday. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty images)
"Conducting one of the largest airlif t operations in contemporary American history is not any small feat within the better of situations, and this one isn't the best of situations as a result of ... we're in the course of a virus," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby instructed journalists Tuesday.
"Screening happens at each stop, at every stage of the procedure," he observed, explaining that fundamental health screenings are being finished on the Kabul airport for evacuees who're symptomatic, in addition to extra screenings at brief safe havens in Europe and the middle East where evacuation flights are landing earlier than departing for the U.S., the place passengers are screened upon arrival.
though Kirby emphasised that the simple focus is to get as many people out of Afghanistan as possible, "we're doing the best we are able to to make sure that we've bought ample visibility on everyone's health," he spoke of. "It's on everyone's intellect, believe me."
It's no longer clear w hat number of of the fine COVID-19 instances had been among Afghan refugees versus american citizens, but the doc obtained by using Yahoo news notes that early Monday morning, an unspecified number of at-chance Afghans who proven high quality for COVID-19 were transported by means of bus to the citadel Lee army base in Virginia.
citadel Lee is one among 4 U.S. military installations which are at present presenting temporary housing to Afghan refugees, together with translators and other special Immigrant Visa applicants who worked for the U.S. armed forces or its allies in Afghanistan over the remaining 20 years.
families evacuated from Kabul board a bus after arriving at Dulles overseas Airport on Saturday. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
As of Monday, in accordance with the document acquired by means of Yahoo news, there were just 10 evacuees at citadel Lee, 360 at citadel McCoy in Wisconsin and 755 at fortress Bliss in Texas. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, in New Jerse y, had yet to acquire any Afghan evacuees, and yet another 426 were being housed at the Dulles Expo middle, a a hundred,000-square-foot conference facility 6 miles from the airport.
Kirby advised newshounds on the Pentagon Monday that the goal is to be capable of house as much as 25,000 Afghans across the 4 U.S. armed forces installations. "We're now not there yet," he pointed out. "It's going to take days and weeks for all four to get to that mixed level."
Airlift operations from Kabul have ramped up significantly in contemporary days, as the U.S. armed forces appears to evacuate as many american citizens and at-possibility Afghans as feasible earlier than the Aug. 31 closing date for U.S. troops to go away Afghanistan. President Biden has now not noted whether he'll prolong that cut-off date.
additional reporting by Jana iciness.
cowl thumbnail image: Andrew Cabellero-Reynolds/AFP by the use of Getty pictures
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