Greg: normality won’t return all at once

LISTOWEL’S Greg McDonough wants the people back home in Kerry and Ireland to be patient as he warns that it will take a long time for any sense of what we consider ‘normality’ to return to our lives.

Greg (52) has been living under strict lock-down in the Anhui province with his wife, Wang Xuan, and son, Joseph (2), with much of this time spent inside the confines of their apartment.

Now though, as China begins to emerge more and more from its lock-down, Greg says that while some semblance of normality has returned, there is still a long way to go.

“Here in China, we are on the other side of this pandemic, but that does mean that it’s all over here. It just means that we’re on the down slope, but life is still very different here and people are still very worried,” Greg told The Kerryman.

After seeing how eager some countries are to re-open – the US in particular – he said that

China is not going to rush into things.

“One month after the last person with COVID-19 was left out of hospital in my province, which is about the size of France, we are still practising social distancing; masks are everywhere, and we still avoid public transport,” he said.

“You need a QT code to get in anywhere, even places like a shopping mall. If you are on a bus and someone else on the bus comes down with the virus three days later, your QR code turns from green to red, and you have to self-isolate again,” Greg continued.

“Some factories are back open, but most are not, and the restaurants are running only about a third of their tables. All haircuts are being done by mothers with soup bowls!”

Joking that he feels like he’s losing his Irish identity because he hasn’t been inside a pub for over three months, Greg did express his hope that he’ll be back in one of his favourite Listowel stomping grounds – Mike the Pies – next summer, when he hopes that the world will finally be back to normal, or at least a new normal.

Until then, he wants everyone in Kerry to keep the lights on and flags flying and said that we’ll get through it.

Listowel man Greg McDonough says that, even though they are on the downward slope of the pandemic curve, there are still restrictions on life in China.