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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Trevor Quinn & Neil Leslie

Waterford teacher who fled Wuhan after coronavirus outbreak describes it as the 'weirdest' experience of life

A young Irish teacher has described his escape from the ghost city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak as “the weirdest“ experience of his life.

Twenty-four-year-old Conor Butler was teaching English to primary school children in the Chinese city of Wuhan which was branded the outbreak Ground Zero.

The Waterford native joined a flight of evacuees out of the stricken region at the end of last week.

He is now quarantined with hundreds of others who fled China in a hospital at Wirral near Liverpool.

Conor told RTE’s Sean O’Rourke how he joined the exodus of foreign nationals fleeing the epicentre of the outbreak.

“I messaged the embassy and they sorted it out,“ he said. “It was the 30th of January, I got a call at 10 o’clock in the morning telling me to pack up everything I had to be ready to go on short notice.

Medical staff outside a hospital in Wuhan where patients have contracted pneumonia from coronavirus (REUTERS)

“It must have been about seven at night then I got a phone call telling me to pack one hand luggage bag worth of stuff and make my way to the checkpoint, which was chaos to be honest.

“There is no taxis, public transport, no subway. I had to organise a private driver to get me to the checkpoint which was a toll booth eight kilometres outside the airport.“

Conor was then boarded onto a flight to Brize Norton RAF base in the UK.

“Everyone had their own supply of masks but you were given masks if you didn’t have any,“ he revealed.

“It was grim, absolutely grim. Obviously I wasn’t expecting much from the flight, it was the bare minimum, obviously you had a seat but you didn’t have any entertainment or anything so you are just staring at the wall for 12 hours unless you fell asleep.

“Everyone on my flight was fine, but there was a flight that came in yesterday and one person started to feel ill, they are sectioned off from us now in a different part of the hospital."

After disembarking the passengers were taken on a four-hour bus journey to the Wirral.

“I came into the hospital, got a bag of food, ate it went up to my room and passed out,“ Conor said.

“It’s sort of like college accommodation mixed with a hospital. We can roam around the facility but we try not to roam around as much as we want in case anyone is infected.

“Personally I just sit in my room, watch Netflix, go down and get a cup of tea, get my breakfast, lunch, dinner, couple of snacks and go back to the room.

“It’s the weirdest week and a half of my lfe. It’s just strange that’s the only way I can described it.“

The Waterford teacher also desribed how his family have feared for his safety.

“My mother certainly worried obviously, she’s not as worried now. Apparently my grandmother had her first sleep in weeks last night, that’s what you are dealing with,“ he added.

Conor faces at least 10 more days of quarantine in the hospital before deciding if he will ever go back to Wuhan.

He added: “I know for definite there won’t be any classes for a month. Depends how safe it is if the virus is still floating around, I’m not going to bother but I will have to suss that out after a month.“

Kildare teacher Ben Kavanagh is also quarantined in the same facility alongside Conor.

He told the Irish Mirror how the days have unfolded.

“It’s day four, the other three days have actually went pretty fast and they haven’t dragged to be honest,“ he said.

“Day one was grand, we were all just getting our feet on the ground, a bit tired from the 40 hour trek and a bit of jetlag, but you know jet-lag is worse going the other way.

“I played a bit of pool, watched a bit of football and the rugby so that was grand and day two was much the same.

“A typical day (starts with) the breakfast coming in the morning and then people go down to the communal area to get it and most people will bring it straight back up to their room.

“A lot of people are doing their best to self-isolate.

“I wasn’t going out of my way to self-isolate (on Monday), but I barely just left my own room.

“I made my dinner and lunch in my kitchen and I don’t have any neighbours or anything, I’m the only one on the bottom floor so that’s personally me.

“And then others, maybe they want to go into the communal area and just watch the rugby and just have a little chat.

“But again when we do that we go out in masks and gloves.“

Ben described how people are constantly washing hands and having limited contact.

He added: “They’re all grand days, food comes in the morning, food comes at lunch and food comes in the evening.

“People are getting parcels delivered, people are getting care packages and the community are constantly sending things in as well, so we’re definitely well stocked up for stuff.

“I personally did absolutely nothing and just kind of binged on Netflix all day and chatted to family and friends.

“So, it’s grand, I don’t think anyone is going to get cabin fever; it would be weird to get cabin fever, because you can leave your room and go out and socialise and walk around in the courtyard and have a smoke if you want.

“The days are passing pretty quickly considering we’re here in quarantine and we’re not actually doing anything.

“But yeah I think everybody is looking forward to getting out in 10 days, 10 more days, very easy...”

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