Long journey ends, lengthy quarantine begins for Canadians brought to Trenton, Ontario from Wuhan

A plane carrying Canadian citizens home from the centre of the global novel coronavirus outbreak has landed in Vancouver.

VANCOUVER — A plane carrying Canadian citizens home from the centre of the global novel coronavirus outbreak has landed in Ontario after it made a brief stop in Vancouver to refuel.

No one got on or off the plane while it was stopped in Vancouver. It has now landed at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario, where the evacuees are expected to be quarantined for the next 14 days.

This evacuation flight was organized by the federal government.

Meanwhile, another 50 Canadians being flown out of Wuhan on an American flight have transferred to another charter at Vancouver International Airport, also headed for Trenton.

With these two flights, the government said about two-thirds of the Canadians looking to get out of the region would have left for Canada.

This means, however, that the federal government will need to charter a second plane to get remaining Canadians out. That plane is scheduled to leave Wuhan on Feb. 10, arriving in Canada the next day.

As of Thursday, the government said close to 350 Canadians have asked for assistance in leaving the epicentre of the new virus.


Due to the outbreak, all Canadians are asked to avoid all non-essential travel to China, and all travel to the Hubei province.

Canadian officials have documented five cases of the new strain of coronavirus in Canada so far and say the quarantine is necessary to ensure the virus doesn’t spread further.

So far, more than 600 people have died and tens of thousands of others have been infected by the novel coronavirus, mostly in China.

With files from the Canadian Press

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