“There is no guarantee that the Department of State will be able to continue to provide repatriation assistance and transportation options to the United States may be unavailable in the future. If you choose to remain overseas, you should be prepared to remain where you are for the foreseeable future”, the US government warned their citizens against any more international travel.
The US Embassy in Uganda in it's latest health alert has told
its citizens that a plane set to evacuate them from Uganda departs on Friday, 3rd April, 2020.
The embassy resolved to exit their willing citizens who are
able to pay for their return home via Qatar airways following a lock down by
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni initially closing the airport and finally all forms of
personal transportation to curb further spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID
-19). Uganda now has 44 people who have tested positive.
Following the lock down, Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng
had noted that countries who have citizens and would wish to evacuate them were
free to do so.
But, even as this plane is available, the embassy told Americans
in the country that it is not operated by the US government and that they
should prepare to pay for their travel and that this was going to be the last
flight out of Uganda for the foreseeable future.
“Availability and cancellations will be controlled by the
airline. The flight will be via an
international routing to either JFK (New York) or IAD (Washington DC), with the option for onward domestic
flights according to availability.
The
airline estimates the cost will be approximately $2500 per ticket for an
itinerary terminating at IAD. The price
may vary depending on final destination,” reads the health alert in part.
However, even as these Americans are set to leave, the US
government in their Global Level Four Advisory, urge their citizens not to
engage in international travels due to the pandemic.
“There is no guarantee that the Department of State will be
able to continue to provide repatriation assistance and transportation options
to the United States may be unavailable in the future. If you choose to remain
overseas, you should be prepared to remain where you are for the foreseeable
future," the advisory reads.
As of today, 937,117 people have tested positive for the
disease worldwide. The US tops the world in the number of cases at 215,344
people testing positive.
