Pregnant Newfoundlander boards flight with family after being stuck in Peru
Couple worked with local MPs to secure flight home
A Canadian couple with a three-year-old child and another baby on the way is safely back in Canada after being stuck in Lima as the COVID-19 pandemic spread.
Jacquelyn Holden, Ryan Green and their daughter Eleanor boarded a flight in Lima on Thursday bound for Toronto.
They had been calling for Newfoundland and Labrador's members of Parliament to intervene and get them on a repatriation flight after they were not selected for the first one that left the South American country Tuesday.
"They're coming home," St. John's South-Mount Pearl MP Seamus O'Regan tweeted on Thursday evening. "Glad we could help Ryan and Jacquelyn. Now, get home safe."
The couple spoke with CBC News on Wednesday, expressing their disappointment at being passed over for the first flight out, given Holden is six months pregnant and they have a three-year-old.
The family headed to Peru in early March for a vacation and yoga retreat. Things got hectic around mid-month when the Canadian government requested all citizens abroad return.
The Peruvian government moved swiftly to declare a state of emergency and shut down all the airports in the country to commercial air traffic. Only repatriation flights arranged by governments were allowed to go in and out of the country.
The family landed in Toronto just before midnight on Thursday.
Another young Canadian man in Peru had a much worse fate earlier this week. Reuters reported that a 38-year-old man from Canada died of COVID-19 in Lima on Tuesday.