With her husband recovering from the new coronavirus in Wuhan, China, Amelia Pan has a single mission: getting her two-year-old daughter home.
The Canadian citizen was unable to travel with her family to the Hubei province last month when her husband’s father fell gravely ill, but planned to follow them once she got a Chinese travel visa.
That plan was dashed when the fast-spreading virus led to a lockdown of the province. Since then, things have continued to change dramatically.
“I didn’t (think) the coronavirus would affect us,” Pan told Global News from her Richmond, B.C., home.
“I was enjoying myself without the toddler and the husband around. Oh my gosh, that freedom. But the price I paid for that freedom …”
Shortly after his father was rushed to hospital, Pan’s husband came down with the coronavirus. Pan says he’s now doing well and is recovering under quarantine, but is still testing positive for the respiratory illness.
Their daughter was set to be among the 213 Canadians evacuated by plane to CFB Trenton in Ontario on Friday. But then she, too, came down with a fever.
“I was just hoping that it’s not the virus and that my daughter would come out of it alive and healthy as her normal self,” Pan said.
On Saturday morning, Pan got the good news she wanted that her daughter has tested negative for coronavirus. She had been sick with an unrelated flu, but has since recovered.
“I feel bad for my husband, my heart goes out to him … but I’m glad my daughter is OK,” Pan said.
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Pan has been thankful for the generosity of family members and neighbours who have taken care of her daughter while her husband is in quarantine.
The young girl herself has also been in and out of quarantine, as many of those caregivers have been in contact with Pan’s sick husband.
Pan is now hoping her daughter’s temperature remains normal enough that she can get on the next Canadian charter flight out of Wuhan, which is scheduled to leave on Monday.
But that’s not a guarantee either: the toddler will have to be accompanied by a caregiver with Canadian visas, and none of her extended family members — all Chinese nationals like her father, who is a permanent resident — can travel.
Pan is hoping a temporary caregiver can be provided at the airport to accompany her daughter home. The county government has already agreed to drive the girl from the hospital to the airport, she said, but those officials will not continue on to Canada.
When she asked Global Affairs Canada if she could be flown on the flight to Wuhan and meet her daughter to bring her back, Pan says she was told “repeatedly” that’s not possible.
“I’m sure they have their concerns, I totally understand,” she said. “But I’m just thinking, what else can we do? What else can I do? I could enter another part of China, but how am I going to enter the city to get to my daughter in time?”
Global News has reached out to Global Affairs Canada for comment on Pan’s case.
The flight that arrived at CFB Trenton Friday included 13 permanent residents and six Chinese nationals with Canadian visas who were allowed to escort the 34 Canadian minors returning home.
The death toll due to the coronavirus has climbed to 723 in mainland China, with a majority of the deaths in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.
Across mainland China, the number of cases stood at 34,598 as of Saturday, according to the World Health Organization.
The virus has spread to 27 countries and regions, according to media counts based on official reports, infecting more than 330 people. Two deaths have been reported outside mainland China, in Hong Kong and the Philippines. Both victims were Chinese nationals.
U.S. officials announced Saturday that an American citizen in Wuhan died of the virus on Thursday, marking the first non-Chinese death of the illness.
As she awaits word on whether her daughter will be allowed onto the flight, Pan is doing her best to keep her spirits up but admits it’s difficult.
“I am prepared for the worst but I’m hoping for the best,” she said.
“I keep looking forward to the day I can see my daughter, hold her in my arms, and laugh and cry together. I’m really hanging my breath on that.”
—With files from Paul Johnson and Reuters
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