By 
A FORMER Dungannon woman now living in Australia, has spoken of her anguish and concern for her parents back home and the impact of the coronavirus on her adopted town which comes just weeks after the devastation of the bushfires.
In an all-too familiar pattern, the number of cases of Covid 19 is continuing to rise on a daily basis in Australia. On Tuesday, there were 4,557 confirmed cases of coronavirus an increase of 312 on the previous day.
Deirdre Donnelly from Dungannon who moved to the country around 12 years ago, lives in the town of Armidale, New South Wales, where she runs an antiques store and has a young family.
Speaking to the Dungannon Herald, Deirdre said she had been in daily contact with her parents back home as the global crisis deepens.
“Yes, I’m chatting to my parents everyday. It’s been quite worrisome being so far from home and especially now with all the travel bans,” she said.
“My father has COPD and they are both in their early 70’s.”
Deirdre said the area where she lives – which is now in lockdown – had just been getting back on its feet after the devastation wrought by the bushfires which raged for months, killing dozens of people across Australia and destroying homes and businesses.
“It’s been really, really difficult to be honest,” Deirdre continued.
“We are still in a drought, we are still on level five water restrictions, then the bushfires and now this terrible coronavirus.
“I’m a small business owner with my hubby and have found it pretty tough over the last year. Just when we thought we were turning a corner, this coronavirus pops up. We closed our doors last week due to our sales vastly dropping but also to protect our most vulnerable in our community.
“We had our first case in our regional town confirmed over the weekend.”
And similar to countless families back home in Tyrone, Deirdre and her husband are also facing the challenge of keeping their children entertained.
“We are self-isolating at home with our two young kids so they are keeping us very busy,” added Deirdre, who is a former pupil of St Patrick’s College and Dungannon Tech.
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