Americans abroad are asking themselves whether to risk infection by staying put, or risk infection by returning.

Many Americans who had assumed they could stay overseas till the pandemic ebbed now face an unnerving choice: either prepare for the possibility of being infected and treated in foreign hospitals, or risk infection on the way back to the United States.

The U.S. State Department, warning that commercial flights from overseas may end in the coming days, is urging Americans abroad to grab any opportunity to board them.

Flights organized by the State Department that have so far returned 65,000 Americans from across the world are winding down. Some continue in limited numbers, in areas like the Indian subcontinent and Africa. And American diplomats have helped commercial airlines cut through foreign regulations that have restricted flights in and out of some countries during the pandemic.

[Update: Unified in coronavirus lockdown, India splinters over reopening.]

But there still are at least 17,000 American citizens or legal residents abroad who have indicated they need help.