Worried Ontario father wants young daughter out of virus zone

An Ontario father says he missed his 15-month-old daughter’s first steps because she is stuck in the Chinese city at the centre of a new coronavirus outbreak.

Richard Fabic is hoping to get the Canadian government’s assistance so he can be reunited soon with his daughter, Chloe, he said in an interview Thursday from his home in Mississauga, Ont.

“We are very worried,” he said. “Very concerned.”

Wuhan has essentially been sealed off from the outside world as China tries to contain the respiratory virus, which has the symptoms of a common cold, but can be deadly in severe cases.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global emergency Thursday, which the UN health agency defines as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a co-ordinated international response.

Canada announced this week that it is preparing to send a plane to Wuhan to get Canadians out.

The government says 196 Canadians have asked for help to leave, and it is seeking Chinese approval to have a chartered plane collect them.

“Our consular staff in China, in Beijing but also right across the country, is fully engaged on this issue, responding to the concerns that Canadians and their families have about loved ones in areas affected by the coronavirus, which are expanding unfortunately rapidly,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at an appearance in Brampton, Ont., Thursday afternoon.

“We will continue to do everything we can to support those families and secure their return to Canada and to do so in a way that is safe and doesn’t enable or allow for even greater propagation of the virus.”

He said Canada is looking at World Health Organization guidelines and what other countries are doing as it determines whether and how Canadians returning from China might be quarantined.

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said Ottawa still has no firm timeline for when the evacuation will take place, noting the situation is complicated.

“We are flying a non-commercial flight into a new country that is under quarantine that has very strict protocols about where planes can land and what the protocols might be,” Hajdu told reporters in Ottawa on Thursday. “And so that requires negotiations with the Chinese government, which Global Affairs Canada is conducting right now.”

Fabic is growing impatient.

“We’re a bit frustrated but also … we’re hopeful again that we will be able to see our daughter,” he said. 

In December, Fabic’s wife, Yunfei Li, accepted a job in Victoria and the family decided to move to British Columbia from Ontario, he said.

Fabic, Li and Chloe — all Canadian citizens — and Chloe’s grandparents, permanent Canadian residents, were to “be one big happy family” living in Victoria, he said.

The couple decided to “divide and conquer.” Fabic was going to pack up the Ontario home, while Li would find a place in Victoria.

“But during this time period it’s tough to take care of a 15-month-old baby as well and so my in-laws were planning to go to China anyway,” he said.  

“We figured it would be a perfect time for Chloe to connect with the family that she had in China, celebrate the Chinese New Year and arrive in Victoria to a well-settled place.”

Fabic stayed behind while the rest of the family went to China at the beginning of December to settle Chloe in with her cousins. Li returned to Canada in the third week.

About a week after that, word of the new virus surfaced, he said.

“No one was concerned in the Wuhan area, so I didn’t pay too much attention to it. I certainly kick myself now.”   

Fabic said he realized that he needed to get Chloe and her grandparents out as the city was being sealed off.

“We had organized a flight by the next day but the flights were already stopped.”

That’s when he started contacting the Canadian government.

“We’re wanting to get a quick ,decisive plan of action so we at least know what that next step is.”

He’s not the only one who wants to see his loved ones out.

British expat Tom Williams and his Canadian wife, Lauren, have been asking for help to leave with their 2 1/2-year-old Canadian son James. Lauren is 35 weeks pregnant. 

They said Thursday they were at the Wuhan airport ready to fly to Britain on Friday morning.

“We’re really relieved,” Williams said. “We have to get through quite a few security and health screenings first, but the British flight is due to take off at 5 a.m. Beijing time.”

The family was asked to arrive at the airport at least six hours before departure, he said.

Williams and his family expect to be in quarantine in the United Kingdom for two weeks, but he said it could be longer.

Chloe and her grandparents are in a condominium in Wuhan and follow the instructions given by the local government, Fabic said. They stay in as much as possible and when they need to go out to get groceries they wear masks and gloves and use sanitizer.

He tries to talk to his daughter on the internet at least every other day, he said.

He watched a video recording of her first steps.

“She’s just starting to walk,” he said. “She walks around the room slowly.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 30, 2020.

— With files from The Associated Press.

Hina Alam, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. Earlier versions said the whole family went to China in early December, and gave the number of Canadians seeking help to leave as 156.