most effective 9 of the individuals evacuated from Afghanistan to the U.S. considering that the Taliban takeover have demonstrated positive for COVID-19, in line with a executive document bought through Yahoo information. however, COVID processes and testing have slowed down the processing of evacuees, in response to the document.
Pentagon officers mentioned Tuesday morning that the U.S. armed forces has evacuated or facilitated the evacuation of approximately 58,700 individuals from Afghanistan when you consider 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 people departed Kabul in the final 24 hours, with one plane leaving the Afghan capital roughly each 45 minutes. right through that time, Taylor observed, an additional 4 flights carrying greater than 1,000 passengers have landed at Dulles foreign Airport near Washington, D.C.
families board a U.S. A ir drive plane at Hamid Karzai overseas Airport in Kabul on Monday. (Sgt. Samuel Ruiz/U.S. Marine Corps/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The document — a government replace despatched to the White condo Monday night and marked "For legitimate use handiest" — offers new particulars about the variety of evacuees who have been transported to the united states from Afghanistan, and the challenges concerned in managing COVID-19 screening for evacuees. The document states that between Aug. 17 and Monday afternoon, 21 flights carrying a total of 4,393 evacuees from Afghanistan — including 44 armed forces provider canine — had arrived at Dulles.
The Pentagon, the department of health and Human capabilities and the international organization for Migration "are still picking out methods for transitioning evacuees that look at various advantageous for COVID-19," the document says.
based on the doc, evacuees who give proof of a bad examine inside 72 hours aren't required to be retested upon arrival within the u.s., an exemption it is assisting increase processing instances. despite the fact, the document notes that it is still "taking longer than anticipated for evacuees to disembark planes for testing and customs processing" because of a combination of factors, including delays in U.S. Customs and Border coverage agents receiving flight manifests, unspecified country wide safety issues, evacuees no longer having accomplished a CDC COVID-19 form in advance of touchdown, and other concerns related to selecting which evacuees require testing upon arrival.
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The percentage of evacuees who've proof of a fresh negative examine varies from flight to flight. The 9 fantastic COVID-19 circumstances had been out of three,293 evacuees who'd been verified on-website at Dulles so far.
Afghan refugees after arriving on a flight at Dulles overseas Airport close Washington, D.C., on Monday. (Olivier Douliery/AFP by way of Getty pictures)
"Conducting one of the most largest airlift operations in fresh American heritage isn't any small feat within the better of situations, and this one isn't the best of cases as a result of ... we're in the course of a deadly disease," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby informed newshounds Tuesday.
"Screening occurs at every stop, at every stage of the manner," he noted, explaining that fundamental health screenings are being executed on the Kabul airport for evacuees who are symptomatic, as well as additional screenings at brief secure havens in Europe and the core East where evacuation flights are touchdown before departing for the us, where passengers are screened upon arrival.
although Kirby emphasised that the simple center of attention is to get as many individuals out of Afghanistan as possible, "we're doing the most beneficial we are able to to be certain that we've got enough visibility on every person's fitness," he observed. "It 's on everybody's intellect, agree with me."
It's now not clear what number of of the fantastic COVID-19 situations were amongst Afghan refugees versus americans, but the doc obtained via Yahoo information notes that early Monday morning, an unspecified variety of at-risk Afghans who confirmed wonderful for COVID-19 have been transported via bus to the fortress Lee army base in Virginia.
citadel Lee is one among 4 U.S. armed forces installations which are at the moment providing temporary housing to Afghan refugees, including translators and other special Immigrant Visa applicants who worked for the U.S. armed forces or its allies in Afghanistan over the last two decades.
households evacuated from Kabul board a bus after arriving at Dulles overseas Airport on Saturday. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
As of Monday, in keeping with the doc received by way of Yahoo news, there were simply 10 evacuees at fortress Lee, 360 at citadel McCoy in Wisconsin and 755 at fo rt Bliss in Texas. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, in New Jersey, had yet to get hold of any Afghan evacuees, and an additional 426 have been being housed on the Dulles Expo center, a a hundred,000-rectangular-foot convention facility 6 miles from the airport.
Kirby informed reporters on the Pentagon Monday that the purpose is to be able to apartment as much as 25,000 Afghans throughout the 4 U.S. defense force installations. "We're now not there yet," he talked about. "It's going to take days and weeks for all 4 to get to that combined degree."
Airlift operations from Kabul have ramped up greatly in recent days, because the U.S. armed forces appears to evacuate as many american citizens and at-possibility Afghans as feasible before the Aug. 31 time limit for U.S. troops to depart Afghanistan. President Biden has not mentioned whether he'll prolong that deadline.
extra reporting with the aid of Jana iciness.
cover thumbnail picture: Andrew Cabel lero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty images
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