George got a note under his hotel door at 7 o'clock in the morning, he told Joe Duffy on Tuesday. The note was the same one all one thousand guests in the hotel were receiving. It said that guests were being confined to their rooms as there had been a confirmed case of Coronavirus at the hotel. Apparently, an Italian guest had been taken to hospital with the virus.
"And then we were all allowed to go down for breakfast! And after that, we're back to our room and we've to wait on the doctor coming to check us. I don't know what the outcome of that will be. If we're all clear, whether that's the end of it or that's just the start of it, I couldn't tell you."
Originally scheduled to stay in the hotel until Friday, George told Joe he now has no idea when they'll be able to leave. At the time of the call, George said, the staff are telling people to stay in their rooms and wait for the doctor.
"Talking to people on the balcony across from us, he's not even been round yet, so I don't know how long that will take."
Lorna is staying in the same hotel. She told Joe that the first sign she saw that something was up was at 6.30 that morning, when staff arriving at the hotel were turned away and the police closed the approach road.
"So we knew something was wrong and I joked to my friend from the balcony, 'oh dear look, they're wearing masks'. Because of course we had a sandstorm on Sunday. I said, 'oh that must be over by now, but I hope it isn't the Coronavirus'."
Lorna's due to fly home on Wednesday, but doesn't know whether or not she'll be able to leave as scheduled. Joe asked her on a scale of one to ten, how worried she was that she'd have to stay in the hotel indefinitely.
"I'm not worried at all. I just take life as it comes."
Joe asked George the same question and more or less got the same answer. They're fairly relaxed, given the circumstances. The same couldn't really be said for Joan, who was due to fly to Tenerife Tuesday afternoon. "And where are you now?" Joe asked. "I'm sitting in the dining room," was the reply. In Dublin airport? Nope:
"I'm in Costa del Walkinstown at the minute."
Joan was alerted to the outbreak of coronavirus in Tenerife by her son on Tuesday morning and, worried about getting the virus and then bringing the disease back to Walkinstown, she and her husband decided to cancel the holiday they had been looking forward to for a long time. "Did you get your money back?" Joe asked Joan. "No," was the answer.
"The insurance company said they don't cover the coronavirus."
Joe spoke to some Irish people in Tenerife, as well as Majella O'Donnell, who's just back from Tenerife – herself and wee Daniel have a house there and she’s not at all worried – and you can hear it all here.
Niall Ó Sioradáin