Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As we've heard, overall the preparedness and response activity for COVID-19 is being led by the Public Health Agency of Canada in close co-operation with Health Canada. Global Affairs Canada is a part of those efforts, with a specific mandate for the international dimensions of the response under the federal emergency response plan. Our primary responsibilities include the provision of consular services to affected Canadians abroad, management of the international emergency responses that might be required in that regard and the provision of travel information and advisories to Canadians.
At our last meeting, we spoke of the complexity inherent in any infectious disease outbreak and of some of the barriers faced in delivering consular assistance to Canadians in these difficult circumstances. Over the past weeks, we have responded on multiple fronts: providing up-to-date travel advice updated on a 24-7 basis to supplement the travel health notices being issued by the Public Health Agency of Canada; providing information and consular services to travelling Canadians or Canadians resident abroad; repatriating Canadians in some instances; and developing new methods to extend consular support to those Canadians in quarantine abroad.
In the case of Hubei province, China, following the decision of local authorities to close transportation routes in and out of the province on prolonged basis, the Government of Canada arranged two charter flights and also worked to place Canadians on U.S. charters. That transported a total of 404 Canadians and their families from Wuhan, China, to Canada. As noted earlier, all these Canadians have now completed their 14 days in quarantine.
Global Affairs continues to provide consular services to Canadians in China through the embassy in Beijing, our network of consulates in China and the 24-7 emergency watch and response centre in Ottawa.
Global Affairs Canada also worked to assist Canadians affected by the quarantine of the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Following the approval by the Government of Japan for the departure of foreign nationals, Canada worked quickly to charter an aircraft to repatriate 129 Canadians who were quarantined on the Diamond Princess. Those Canadians are currently serving a 14-day quarantine in Cornwall, Ontario, at the Nav Centre. All the Canadians who have been repatriated were screened by medical personnel from the Canadian Armed Forces prior to their departure and were asymptomatic. To date, there have been no cases of coronavirus confirmed amongst those passengers.
Consular officials continue on the ground to deliver assistance to Canadians from the Diamond Princess who remain in Japan. There are 54 Canadians hospitalized across 24 Japanese hospitals. Of those, 43 are hospitalized for reasons related to coronavirus, while the remaining 11 have other medical issues or are accompanying family members in their quarantine. Eleven Canadians have now recovered and been released.
To assist in this response, our consular response team in Tokyo has been supplemented with additional specialized personnel from the consular standing rapid deployment team, personnel from the Public Health Agency of Canada, medical personnel from the Canadian Armed Forces and a medical liaison and psychosocial support team from the Canadian Red Cross. This integrated team is providing comprehensive consular services to affected Canadians, including visits to hospitals, medical liaison, translation, communications, addressing essential needs, psychosocial services and a wide variety of other elements tailored to the individual needs of our consular clients. Our consular service is being constantly adjusted in line with the unique context of quarantine and isolation requirements for Canadians who find themselves abroad.
As noted by the Public Health Agency, a growing number of countries have reported cases of coronavirus. I think it is 33 at last count. We've also seen additional border and travel restrictions in many affected areas, as well as flight cancellations by commercial carriers. Our travel advice is being updated continually in this regard. We are urging Canadians to check the travel advice and travel health notices for their destinations before travelling, given that this situation remains extremely fluid. The travel advice pages for all destinations carry a link to the Public Health Agency's latest information pages and allow travellers to see how the country they are travelling to may have been affected. In addition, specific travel advice for China, Italy, Hong Kong, Iran, South Korea and Singapore has all been specifically updated in response to the coronavirus.
Where Canadians encounter challenges abroad, our emergency watch and response centre, as well as our embassies across the world, stand ready to provide further assistance as might be required.
Since the outbreak began, our consular officials in Ottawa have been working 24/7 to answer questions and provide services and information to Canadians seeking assistance. Our call centre and emergency response team in Ottawa are working non-stop. They receive and answer a high number of calls and emails, communicating directly with Canadians looking for help.
We are also working with our health partners across the Government of Canada to confirm that all necessary procedures and protocols are in place to keep our consular staff deployed around the world safe.
Despite these challenging aspects of the situation, all essential services continue to be offered at our embassies abroad, including in particular full consular and emergency services on the ground to support Canadians.
In closing, I'd like to add that Global Affairs Canada officials are continuing to work closely with health experts and our like-minded partners and are engaging fully in the medium- and longer-term planning for responding to the eventual development of this outbreak.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.