Chartered plane from Wuhan carrying 176 Canadians lands in Ontario

A plane chartered by the federal government to evacuate Canadians from Wuhan, China, as landed at CFB Trenton in Ontario.

According to François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 176 passengers were on board the flight, which left Wuhan on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Canadian officials said it began contacting the roughly 280 Canadians in Wuhan, the centre of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Passengers who wished to be repatriated had to go through an exit health check by Chinese officials. The Canadian Armed Forces screened passengers a second time before they got on the plane in Wuhan.

• See also:
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  • Chartered plane to retrieve Canadians in Wuhan amid coronavirus outbreak

Upon arrival in Canada, the plane initially landed in Vancouver for re-fuelling, before continuing its journey to the military base in Trenton, where passengers will be quarantined for 14 days. After that, the government will help them continue on to Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, or wherever else they want to go.

Update on the Canadian flight from #Wuhan:

The plane has landed at @CanadianForces Base #Trenton where the passengers will be quarantined. #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/bIMBtOZH7Q

— François-Philippe Champagne (FPC) 🇨🇦 (@FP_Champagne) February 7, 2020

In late 2019, a novel coronavirus infected several people in Wuhan. The virus is believed to have jumped from animals to humans at a food market in the city.

Wuhan has been locked down since January 23, with public transport options in and out of the city shut down.

In Canada, there are five confirmed cases of coronavirus, three in Ontario and two in BC. On Thursday, the BC government also announced two new presumptive confirmed cases.

With files from Megan Devlin