A plane carrying Canadian citizens out of the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak made a brief stop at Vancouver International Airport last night before carrying on to Ontario.
No one got on or off the repatriation flight, chartered by the federal government, when it stopped to refuel at YVR around 9 p.m. Thursday night. A video provided by the airport (below) shows the plane coming in to land.
The flight landed at the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) at Trenton, Ont. early Friday morning.
The plane was carrying 176 passengers out of Wuhan, a city in China’s central Hubei province where the coronavirus originated in December. That city, with a population of 11 million people, has been under heavy lockdown by the Chinese government in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
According to officials, along with Canadian citizens, 13 permanent residents and six Chinese nationals with Canadian visas were allowed to escort the 34 Canadian minors returning home.
A number of Canadians also left China onboard a United States government flight that left a few hours after the Canadian flight. The Canadians on the US flight will be transferred to CFB Trenton.
The evacuees will stay under quarantine, confined to their rooms with their meals delivered to them, at CFB Trenton for 14 days, according to federal Health Minister Patty Hadju. Families will remain together.
There will also be social and mental health supports available for the evacuees in quarantine.
Once two weeks have passed, and there’s no longer any threat of the virus manifesting itself, the evacuees will be taken to the Ottawa, Montreal or Toronto airports to head home.
- With files from the Canadian Press
