The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Virus lockdown delays Tralee teacher’s return to China
A TRALEE woman who works as a teacher in Dongguan in China and who is currently at home visiting her family in Tralee has admitted that she is highly “apprehensive” about returning to her job over growing fears about Coronavirus.
Leah Herrick, whose father John is a pastor/teacher in the Tralee Baptist Church, spoke to The Kerryman this week and said that she will have to wait and see how the situation with the virus plays out before she decides on what to do going forward.
Leah was initially supposed to travel back to China last Thursday, but she said that the growing threat of the virus caused her to extend her stay here at home for another few weeks.
“The virus was definitely the reason behind my decision to stay here in Tralee. The school that I work at, they extended the holidays for us because schools are now not supposed to open because of the virus,” said Leah.
“At the moment, there would not be an immediate danger but our city has restrictions in place already. Cinemas are closed, Any kind of places where there are gatherings that are deemed unnecessary, they’ve been shut down,” she continued.
Asked whether she would be in fear of going back to China in case the situation would get worse, she said: “I’d be apprehensive for sure. That’s the reason that I’m at home now, to give the whole situation a chance to either clear up or, like, get worse and if that was the case, I’d have to make my decision from there.”
At the time of writing, 16 countries have confirmed cases of the Coronavirus; the virus, which is similar to the SARS pathogen, has so far claimed 106 lives since emerging in a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, and spread around the world.
Cases have been confirmed in European countries such as France and Germany.