Limerick woman describes frantic return from South Africa amid Omicron panic

Marie O'Riordan and her South African partner were visiting South Africa with school supplies for children with autism 

Corné & Marie in Gauteng province

“Our phones were going crazy, I was seriously hoping that we weren’t going to be on Ireland’s Omicron positive list,” said Marie O’Riordan, who has just come out of isolation after travelling home from South Africa with her partner last month, and testing negative for the new variant.

Originally from Limerick and now living in Kildare, Ms O’Riordan had flown to South Africa in October on a volunteering trip, to deliver school supplies to The Little Leaps Pre-School for Young Children with Autism near Pretoria.

She and her partner Corné Moll filled out passenger locator forms in the Gauteng province before travelling home on 3 November, and a couple of weeks later the first case of the Omicron variant was reported there.

“When Tony Holohan made his announcement that retrospectively anyone that's come in from Southern Africa since 1 November must immediately isolate and get a new PCR test, our phones started dinging like mad,” said Ms O’Riordan.

“For Tony Holohan to make the announcement and our phones to start dinging almost as a coordinated response, that felt very structured and organised. It was good to see that the wheels were turning and retrospectively travellers from Southern Africa were isolated,” she added.

Ms O'Riordan and her partner immediately went into isolation when they were contacted by the HSE, and were fast tracked for PCR tests, which have since come back negative for both of them. 

Marie O'Riordan with staff from Little Leaps Pre-School for Young Children with Autism

She described the extra level of caution that people reacted with when she told them she was getting tested for the Omicron variant.

“I went into the testing centre and made an open disclosure, I said look, I am back from Africa, and I was wheeled off in the car to a remote area of the testing centre right away, and red flagged immediately, which was appropriate.

“It was funny, the piece of paperwork they put on my front windscreen fell off, and I got out of the car to pick it up, and I caused an emergency. They had to come over with decontamination gloves, remove the piece of paper, put it into contaminated waste, get a new piece of paper and warn me not to touch anything!”
“We had to be straight up to all our neighbours too, and say look, we’re isolating, we’re back from South Africa, and we’re waiting on a test - and then I sent another text to the neighbourhood saying we're all negative,” she said.

Ms O’Riordan said that much as South Africa honoured the importance of transparency in reporting the new variant, she feels it is important for recent travellers to speak up if there is a possibility they could be infected with Omicron.

“We have no issue with isolating and doing the right thing, but my partner is South African and would have seen in online social media groups people who have come into Ireland in recent days and they don't want to do a test, they’re saying it's no one's business, and I’m saying that's highly irresponsible,” she added.

“I think transparency is important when appropriate, and I think it was very important with Omicron, we don't yet know what we're dealing with.”