Canada’s chartered evacuation plane has departed the virus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan, marking the beginning of the end of a two-and-a-half week ordeal for 300+ Canadians stuck in the cordoned-off metropolis.
The Airbus A330 jetliner from Hanoi, Vietnam set down at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport at 10:28 p.m. local time, and left hours later.
Publicly available radar data showed the jet heading east over the Chinese mainland toward the East China Sea on Thursday afternoon.
Canada’s Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne said 211 passengers were cleared to board the plane, which will fly to Vancouver to refuel and then on to CFB Trenton for quarantine.
“There were a small number of no-shows – mostly related to people who changed their minds at the last minute,” Champagne said of the first flight.
He said 176 of the 211 passengers on the manifest were present at the airport to board the plane.
A second plane, chartered by the U.S., will leave with some Canadians aboard shortly after the first Canadian plane.
About 50 Canadians will be aboard the U.S. flight, officials said.
Champagne said the first plane is expected to arrive in Vancouver in the early morning hours of Friday, where the passengers will move to a second plane that will head to CFB Trenton.
Both flights are carrying about two-thirds of the 347 Canadians who indicated a need to leave the Hubei area of China.
A third chartered flight will pick up any remaining Canadians who want to get out, sometime on Feb. 10, to depart the following day.
Toronto native Steven Li, with two surgical masks strapped across his face, spoke to CTV News Channel from the departure lounge inside the airport, saying nobody was telling approximately 100 Canadians assembled around him when the plane would arrive.
“I’ve just heard you say that it is coming,” he told CTV News Channel’s Marcia MacMillan. “Everybody seems calm, there’s no panic, there’s kids running around, people taking pictures, people eating.”
Li said he was exited to board the plane.
“I feel good, I am excited to go home,” Li said.
He said passing the various checkpoints in the city, a major hassle that snarled his efforts yesterday, took several hours, as did registration for the flight at the airport afterwards.
Wuhan has been under police and paramilitary-enforced lockdown since Jan. 23, when officials cordoned it off along with the surrounding province to stem the tide of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak.
During that time, he said he has waited hours or days for updates from Canadian diplomats.
“There’s a bit of uncertainty. It’s quite poor in my opinion,” he said of communication.
Public health officials in Ontario said previously that everyone who wishes to board the evacuation plane will be screened for fever and other respiratory illness symptoms.
They will then be checked periodically aboard the plane, and again when they land.
Then it’s a 14 day stay in quarantine on the grounds of CFB Trenton.
"I think it's going to be very similar to being self-isolated at home, it may even be easier because accessing aid may be easier then it was back at my apartment," Li said.
He says he's eager to be back home soon.
“I’ll make my way back to Toronto,” Li said of his plans after the quarantine, adding he very much misses his family.
Health Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters Canadian armed forces medical staff are going to check everyone on board for illness.
“Anyone who falls ill on the plane will be isolated on the plane,” she said.
Once the returnees arrive at Trenton, they will be processed through customs in a hangar and then brought to nearby hotel where they will ride out the 14 days.
She said Emergency Management Ontario and Public Health Ontario will conduct daily health checks of all returnees and offer them food and supplies.
A mobile lab from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg will be at the base to conduct testing.
She said anyone who falls sick after the plane lands will be isolated and rushed to hospital immediately.
