No fewer than 525 Nigerians caught up by the coronavirus lockdown in the United States of America (USA) and Cyprus have been evacuated by the federal government of Nigeria on Saturday.

Newsmen learnt that the three hundred and fifteen of them were airlifted to Abuja by an Ethiopian Airline while the remaining 210 came aboard a Turkish Airline.

The arrival of the evacuees was confirmed by the chairperson of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa on her Twitter handle.

Recall that the Minister for foreign affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama earlier said on Twitter that the evacuees from the US departed Newark Airport, New Jersey at 23:27hrs on Friday.

According to the minister, those brought in by the Turkish Airline included

“Nigerian students from Cyprus, Nigerian professionals in Turkey and few Nigerian professional footballers.”

He said:

“Two more evacuation flights are expected from the US to Abuja and Lagos, on the 28th and 31st of this month.”

The federal government had on July 4 evacuated 335 stranded citizens from the US as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The evacuees reportedly tested negative for COVID-19 before boarding.

But they will remain in 14-day isolation before reuniting with their families.

Over 2,000 Nigerians have so far been evacuated from various parts of the world, among those who have indicated interest to return home following the COVID-19 pandemic.