A Neenah, Wis. family stuck in China in the middle of a global health crisis has learned they will fly home Tuesday, but their flight has been delayed.
Sam Roth told TMJ4 he just received an email from the U.S. State Department, which confirms his family's spot on the plane.
Roth is in Neenah, and his wife, Daisy, and their two young kids went to visit family in Wuhan for the Lunar New Year. Wuhan is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, and Roth says they have been stuck inside her family's home for days.
As of Sunday afternoon, Roth said his family hasn't left for the airport, and the flight has been delayed from 6 a.m. He does not know why or when it will take off, and his family is waiting on an updated departure.
Roth has been seeking help from Wisconsin lawmakers to try to help get his wife, 5-year-old and 10-month-old home.
"I thought that her situation was such that maybe not the first flight...but maybe in this coming weeks, and we still probably had some time," Roth said. "No, we didn't expect it to be this soon. We're ecstatic."
Roth doesn't know where they will land and is working to find out how he can go meet them. The State Department has imposed a 14-day quarantine for those returning to from China's Hubei province. Roth is trying to figure out what that will mean for his family.
The coronavirus has sickened more than 11,000 and killed more than 250 people in China. There are eight confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, the latest announced Saturday in Massachusetts.
There are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Wisconsin. The state has tested nine people for the virus, two have come back negative, and the other seven are still pending.
