KABUL, Afghanistan - According to CNN, approximately 150 U.S. citizens are still in Afghanistan and need to leave the country before the August 31 deadline for Americans to exit the now Taliban-led region.

This gives them less than 36 hours to evacuate.  

CNN referenced one of its sources who said that since midnight (local time) 200 people had been evacuated to the U.S. base and flown out. 

This brings the total number of U.S. citizens who've been evacuated since August 14 to about 4,700.

According to CNN, statistics supplied by the news outlet's source indicate that the total number of Americans who need to be evacuated is significantly less than the figure provided by U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. 

Blinken announced Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans might still be in the country. He acknowledged that the number may have been less. 

According to Blinken, 500 Americans had been identified who needed help to get to the airport, in addition to another 1,000 who might need help, but whose citizenship or desire to leave were uncertain. 

CNN notes that due to the rate of evacuation overnight, the 150 operational total may be a revised update on Blinken’s total of 500, and may even include some of the 1,000 uncertain cases.

The source also said the evacuation efforts have shifted to focus on assisting local Afghan staff who worked for the US Embassy. 

The source confirmed that on Wednesday there were about 1,800 local U.S. Embassy Afghan staff who still needed to get to the airport and had “36 hours to do it;” as of Thursday morning, 1,300 local staff were recovered and evacuated.

The source went on to say that the evacuation operation would end Friday and added that British citizens were working to leave the country Thursday night.