This is the emotional moment a mother and her two children are reunited with their dad after weeks under coronavirus quarantine.
Yanjun Wei and her two kids, Mia and Rowan, were released from quarantine at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, on Tuesday.
The trio had been trying to get home from the coronavirus epicenter in Wuhan, China, since late December, when the deadly disease was first detected.
They were among 180 passengers evacuated to the US on February 5 and subsequently placed under a 14-day quarantine at the military base to ensure that they wouldn’t spread the virus now known as COVID-19.
Wei’s husband Ken Burnett was eagerly waiting at Sacramento International Airport when his family were finally given the all clear to head back to their home in San Diego.
Yanjun Wei and her two kids, Mia and Rowan, were reunited with their father Ken Burnett on Tuesday after two weeks under coronavirus quarantine
Wei became emotional as she described her joy at seeing her husband for the first time since late December. She and her children were in self-isolation in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, for weeks before they were evacuated on a charter flight to the US
Burnett flew from the family’s home in San Diego to Sacramento to meet his wife and kids when they were released from their 14-day quarantine
‘I’ve been waiting for this day,’ Wei told KRCA-3 through tears of joy at the airport.
Burnett’s flight from San Diego landed in Sacramento minutes before his family arrived on a bus from Travis AFB.
The father was waiting with open arms when they stepped off the bus.
‘I couldn’t sleep last night, the anticipation was too much,’ the father told ABC10.
Wei had taken her children to her native China for the holidays and was planning to meet up with Burnett in Hong Kong in late December, but the rapidly-spreading virus got in the way.
They spent weeks in self-isolation that their home in China and were nearly running out of supplies when Wei got the call that she and her kids would be evacuated on one of five flights chartered by the US State Department.
‘We were scared we were going to be there for who knows how long,’ Wei said.
‘We were very lucky to be on that flight.’
The mother said the frustratingly-long trip home was made easier by officials with the Department of Health and Human Services who cared for them while they were quarantined at Travis AFB.
‘Those guys, they’re amazing. They’re the best people. Yeah. I can’t thank them enough. It’s like … what they’re doing for us, it’s extraordinary, like beyond my expectations,’ Wei said.
Wei thanked officials with the Department of Health and Human Services who cared for her and her children while they were quarantined at Travis AFB
The plane which evacuated Wei, her two children and 177 other American citizens from Wuhan is seen arriving at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield on February 5
The evacuees were housed at the Westwind Inn (pictured) on the military base
Wei and her two children are just a few of the roughly 750 Americans evacuated from Wuhan, the city which has seen nearly all of the 2,007 coronavirus deaths worldwide.
All evacuees were subjected to the quarantine at five military bases across the country.
The group at Travis AFB was released the same day as another 166 passengers who’d been quarantined at Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California.
The Miramar evacuees were seen throwing their masks in the air after being given the all-clear.
One of the Americans, Yu Lin, posted several photos on Twitter celebrating the end of her quarantine.
In one photo, she showed tags meaning she passed her final health screening. In another, she and her fellow evacuees tossed their face masks in the air in celebration.
‘Lots of people asked me how I feel, I can only recognize my feeling now,’ Lin wrote on Tuesday morning.
‘It is like graduation. Bittersweet, happy, nervous, grateful, leaving friends, leaving people who cared for us, maybe a little tears…just no hugs.’
Fifteen coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the US as of Wednesday, and more than 75,000 people worldwide have been sickened by the virus, for which there is no known cure.
Evacuees at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar throw masks in the air in celebration after they were given the all-clear on Tuesday
Fifteen coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the US as of Wednesday, and more than 75,000 people worldwide have been sickened by the virus, for which there is no known cure