The Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 has announced a new date for the resumption of international flights in Nigeria.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had previously announced two weeks ago that international flights would resume operations on August 29, 2020.

However, the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Musa Nuhu, announced during the task force's briefing on Thursday, August 27 that flights won't resume till September 5.

"The aviation sector including the airports are ready to resume on 29.

"However, we have other non-aviation logistics we're still working on mostly to do with the COVID-19 protocols - the tests and online platform.

"We need to get these all ready and in place so that we have a smooth and efficient resumption of international flights without difficulties for all the passengers," Nuhu said.

The NCAA boss also announced that further details will be provided next week on the list of countries from which Nigeria will not accept flights.

Nuhu had said last week Nigeria will not allow international flights from countries that have banned flights from Nigeria.

"If you ban us from coming to your country, the same will apply the other way," he said.

Domestic flights resumed in July months after Nigeria's airspace was shut to non-essential flights in March in a bid to control the spread of the coronavirus disease.

Since Nigeria detected its first COVID-19 case in late February, over 53,000 cases have been recorded across the country, with over 1,000 fatalities.

The novel disease, first detected in China, has infected over 24 million people across the world, with over 832,000 dead.