Canadian cruise ship passengers whose charter plane first landed in Trenton early Friday morning have arrived in Cornwall to begin a 14-day quarantine.
The plane, which landed just after 2 a.m. ET, was carrying passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise liner that was quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, since early February due to an outbreak of COVID-19, which is caused by the coronavirus.
All repatriated passengers on the chartered flight had tested negative for the virus, but were screened again in Trenton before boarding five buses destined for the NAV Centre in Cornwall to be quarantined, according to Health Canada officials.
According to a Facebook post by Bernadette Clement, the mayor of Cornwall, Ont., 131 passengers and seven crew members were on board the charter flight.
However, the office of Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne later confirmed that only 129 passengers were on board.
The majority of those passengers are over the age of 60, Clement said, but range in age from 20 to 80.
Including flight crew and medical personnel, there were 151 people on board, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The flight crew will also be quarantined, federal public health officials said, but the length of quarantine could be shortened depending on the level of risk.
WATCH: Here’s what the rooms at the NAV Centre look like
Clement welcomed passengers in a statement shortly after buses began arriving in Cornwall, saying “our hearts are with you and we hope the quarantine period passes quickly and as comfortably as possible.”
“We know that you find yourselves in extraordinarily difficult circumstances and that it is impossible for us to imagine how we might feel if we were in your shoes,” she wrote. “But our hope is that you are relieved and uplifted to be on Canadian soil.”
Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, medical officer of health with the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, said passengers in quarantine will undergo twice-daily medical checkups and will also have access to mental health support.
“These individuals have been cooped up in a cruise, many of them without windows,” he said. “So we are offering on-site mental health services.”
WATCH: Buses carrying cruise ship passengers arrive in Cornwall
All passengers arriving in Canada tested negative for virus
Lolita Wiesner, who was on the Diamond Princess cruise ship to celebrate her anniversary, said medics boarded the plane shortly after landing at CFB Trenton to take passengers’ temperatures and deliver meals.
Forty-seven Canadians who were on board the ship tested positive for COVID-19. Those passengers were not allowed to board the charter flight, and are in isolation at Japanese health facilities.
Healthy Canadian passengers who choose to leave Japan by their own means will also face a mandatory 14-day quarantine period upon arrival in Canada, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said Thursday.
On Friday, the Canadian Red Cross announced it was sending a team to Japan to offer support to the Canadians who are being treated there.
WATCH: Flight carrying cruise ship passengers arrives in Trenton
As the quarantine in Cornwall gets underway, another group of people are due to be released Friday from separate quarantine in Trenton. Canadians evacuated from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the heart of the outbreak, were quarantined at Yukon Lodge after returning to Canada on Feb. 7.
Risk to general public is low, officials say
The NAV Centre is a hotel, conference and community centre. It has previously been used by the federal government as an emergency shelter.
Some Cornwall residents, including the mayor, were surprised and expressed concern about hosting the cruise ship passengers at a facility that’s open to the public and not typically used for medical purposes.
Representatives from the Public Health Agency of Canada, which is handling the operation, said no one under quarantine will be in contact with the general public.
The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) said the section of the NAV Centre that will be used is isolated and has its own ventilation system separate from the rest of the complex.
The risk to the general public is extremely low, Roumeliotis said.
“The fact that these individuals are here does not increase that risk,” he said. “There are precautions in place to be able to confine these individuals and make sure they’re quarantined in a safe way.”
