Canada has a plane preparing to fly Canadians out of the province in China at the centre of an outbreak of a new coronavirus, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Wednesday.
The next step is to secure co-operation from China to assist the 160 Canadians who have requested help, Champagne said. Not all of them want to leave, he emphasized in an appearance on Parliament Hill.
China has all but sealed off one of its central provinces where the novel coronavirus was first detected. The virus causes respiratory symptoms similar to the common cold, but it can be deadly in very severe cases.
At Champagne’s side, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said the government still has to decide what will happen with the Canadians who leave China, so as to prevent any spread of the illness.
Champagne said Canada is working with allies to co-ordinate plans and make the logistics work, and that could take some time yet.
Some other countries have promised similar help for their citizens stuck in the province of Hubei — particularly those that have diplomatic offices there, which Canada does not — and Champagne said Canada isn’t far behind them.
“The only plane which has landed is a U.S. plane that was scheduled to be there,” Champagne said, which was then followed by a plane sent by Japan earlier Wednesday.
A teacher who is living with his pregnant Canadian wife and child in a city that is the epicentre of China’s coronavirus outbreak had been hoping to get out of the country on a British flight.
Tom Williams is hoping to get his wife, Lauren, who is about 35 weeks pregnant, out of Wuhan, the Hubei city that has been essentially locked down with the emergence of the disease. The couple also has a two-and-a-half-year-old son, James, who is Canadian.
READ MORE: Family hopes Britain can get pregnant B.C. woman out of coronavirus epicentre in China
Williams is a British expat and his wife and son are from Langley.
“We’re just currently waiting to hear confirmation whether we’ve got space on the British flight,” Williams told The Canadian Press in a FaceTime interview from China on Wednesday, before Champagne’s announcement.
The family received a call from officials in Ottawa earlier this week, who asked permission to share his wife’s file with the British Embassy, he said.
“We have some stuff laid out in case it’s a last-minute departure.”
The virus has killed 132 people and infected more than 6,000 on the Chinese mainland and abroad.
Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, will brief MPs on the Commons health committee Wednesday afternoon.
At least 250 Canadians have registered with Global Affairs Canada to say they are in Wuhan, said Champagne, who added that officials are trying to contact everyone to assess their needs.
The Canadian Press
