On Wednesday afternoon the government announced its plans to bring Canadians who want to come back to Canada, home.
“We now have 160 Canadians which have been asking Canada for consular assistance in China,” said Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne in Ottawa.
“We have secure a flight to repatriate Canadians who so wish to come back.”
Champagne said it’s a charter airline, not a military aircraft, and Canada will work on the diplomatic and logistic side of the effort with its Chinese counterparts. “We are engaging in discussion as we speak.”
Minister of Health Patty Hajdu didn’t specify if Canadians will go in isolation, but is always working to ensure the health of Canadians.
“What we are looking at a scenario where we have all the measures in place to protect Canadians from exposure to the virus,” she said.
“I will tell Canada is at the forefront of the response. We are talking with the allies. The only plane that has landed was a US plane that was scheduled to there, the other was Japan plane that was there this morning,” said Champagne.
He said the only planes that already landed were from U.S. and Japan.
Champagne also said the government has changed its travel advisory for Canadians, asking them to avoid non-essential travel to China.
With files from CTV News