Nearly 200 Canadians arrive home after evacuation from Wuhan

Two flights carrying Canadians who were evacuated from Wuhan – the epicenter of the coronavirus – have returned home.

A government flight carrying 176 people touched down early Friday morning at the Canadian Forces base in Trenton, Ont. The evacuees will undergo two weeks of quarantine and monitoring to check whether they’ve contracted the virus.

A second flight organized by the United States government also landed Friday in Vancouver. The plane was carrying roughly 40 Canadians who will also be sent to CFB Trenton, where they will be under quarantine.

There are 285 Canadians currently quarantined on two cruise ships off the coast of Japan and Hong Kong.

Officials say about 11 million people are currently under quarantine in Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated.

The novel coronavirus has spread to more than 30,000 people and killed 638 worldwide.