LAST UPDATE | 13 Oct 2020
KILKENNY CAMOGIE STAR Grace Walsh recently returned to work as a clinical nurse in St Vincent’s hospital, following a mandatory two weeks in isolation.
She had been identified as a close contact of a healthcare worker and Covid-19 protocols required her to stay at home and restrict her movements.
She could exercise outside on her own, but as far as liberties go, that was about it for the Tullaroan defender, until she received her test results.
Two swabs were taken, both showing negative readings, and she was given the all clear to get back to work on a surgical ward in the hospital early last week.
A few things crossed her mind after discovering she was deemed a close contact. She thought about a patient she had been treating and worried if she had stayed in their company too long, potentially exposing them to infection.
She thought about her parents at home in Kilkenny and what might have happened if she had gone home to them. The relief of knowing she hadn’t met up with friends came to mind as well.
As a frontline worker, who was working on a positive Covid ward in the earlier stages of lockdown, Walsh always obeyed the rules around the virus. She spoke about the block of time with her work in an interview with Emma Duffy of The42 back in March.
But receiving word that she was a close contact hammered home the reality of how Covid can impact on one’s life.
When I got the call to say I was a close contact, when I hung up the call, I just started to cry and it was nearly a cry of relief more than anything. I actually nearly get emotional thinking about it.
“I was trying to figure out if I was going to move home to Kilkenny and commute for work.
“I suppose with restrictions, I didn’t know if we were able to travel home for training. And when I found out I was still able to go home for training, I went home to my Dublin house that night and the only person I was in contact with was my housemate and when I got off the phone, I got so upset because I was so relieved that I hadn’t been in contact with anybody else.
That was so important because I knew I wasn’t going to have any regrets if I tested positive for Covid. I wasn’t really worried about myself getting Covid. I had no symptoms at all at the time.”
After coming so close to the possibility of contracting the virus, Walsh decided to post a message in her family WhatsApp group recently, to remind everyone about the importance of being vigilant and compliant with the Covid-19 regulations.
Considering the surge in cases that Ireland has experienced lately, the timing of her message was all the more pertinent.
“You don’t want to have that regret,” she says.
“You don’t want to get a phonecall and say that you’re a close contact of a Covid case, knowing that you could be positive and you could have infected other people.
I promise you there will be no worse feeling that putting somebody else at risk, whether it’s an old person, a young person, somebody you don’t even know.
“But if you are following the guidelines and you’re not coming into contact with other people, you’re not going to have that regret. It wasn’t that it was scary for me. I had two swabs and both of them were negative. It was more lonely than anything.”
As it stands, inter-county competitions are still set to go ahead across GAA, LGFA and camogie in 2020.
Kilkenny have been drawn in Group 2 of the All-Ireland senior camogie championship along with Waterford, Limerick and Westmeath.
The Déise await in their opening game on Saturday, 17 October at Walsh Park [throw-in, 2pm].
Kilkenny have tasted defeat in the last three All-Ireland deciders, but Walsh is looking forward to a unique championship where all the teams have an equal chance of reaching the decider on 12 December.
“Everybody came back at the same time, nobody got to train any earlier than anyone else. Waterford have just been improving every single year.
“I find playing Waterford is one of the toughest group stages every year, so we’ll definitely be up against it on Saturday.
“It’s anybody’s year this year so no-one knows what’s going to happen this year.”
Grace Walsh was speaking at the launch of the 2020 Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Camogie Championships
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