Richard Fabic has received confirmation his 15-month-old daughter and her maternal grandparents will be evacuated from China, tentatively booked on a flight to Ontario on Thursday.
“I am so happy,” said Fabic, in Toronto, having just received word from Global Affairs Canada.
“You have been shortlisted for a Canadian assisted departure flight leaving from Wuhan, China to Canada,” reads the email. “This flight is expected to depart from Wuhan International Airport in the early morning of Thursday, February 6.”
This week Canada asked China to let parents and primary caregivers accompany Canadian children out of Wuhan, even if they are not Canadians themselves.
Fabic and Chloe’s mother, Yunfei Li, are in the process of moving to Victoria. Chloe was staying with her grandparents in China to ease the move when the coronavirus outbreak began.
By the time they arranged to fly the family out of China, flights out of Hubei province, including Wuhan city, were grounded and the affected areas were sealed off. Chloe and her parents are Canadian citizens, while Li’s parents are permanent residents.
China is allowing only foreign nationals from all countries to board repatriation flights, but Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Canada insisted that children be able to fly with their primary caregivers, even if they are permanent residents, and China agreed to let this happen.
On Monday, Fabic assumed Chloe’s grandparents would be able to accompany the child home, but didn’t want to celebrate just yet in the case it didn’t happen which he said would be “devastating.”
The federal government is awaiting final approval from the Chinese government to fly through the restricted airspace and land at the closed airport in Wuhan, but Champagne said other preparations are already well underway.
Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said more than 300 Canadians have asked for assistance to return home, but only 280 have Canadian passports. The numbers remain fluid and Canada has secured a second flight, as well as seats on other flights, should they be needed.
Hajdu said China will not allow anyone who is showing symptoms of coronavirus to board a flight to leave the country, even if they are Canadian citizens, as part of that country’s efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus.
Those who remain will be offered consular services from the rapid deployment team already on the ground in Wuhan.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health minister Dr. Bonnie Henry said Monday they have been working closely with the federal government to ensure the repatriation process is smooth.
“It is expected that B.C. will be the final destination for some of the returning Canadians, and we will continue liaising with the federal government as it identifies passengers for the repatriation flight,” they said in a joint statement.
“In B.C., we have chosen testing criteria with an intentionally low threshold to purposely ensure a wide range of people are eligible for novel coronavirus testing.”
B.C. has one confirmed case and testing is ongoing.
Three of Canada’s four confirmed cases are in Ontario, and Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, said those patients are all at home and doing well.
In total, 126 people have been tested nationally, with only four positives, said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer.
