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The World Health Organization is reporting that there are almost 47,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus worldwide, with fewer than 1 percent outside mainland China.  8,200 are severe cases, and there have been 1,114 deaths in china.  It has been transmitted to 24 countries, with 441 cases outside of China.  

The human body has no immunity to the novel strain which has now been officially labelled COVID-19.  

It has not reached Belize, but today the Ministry of Health held a press briefing to say, that inevitably, it will:

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"We have to understand that Covid-19 is here, I think it's really here to stay. I don't think the question is even when it is going to â€â€œ I mean â€â€œ it is going to come to Belize. It is going to spread everywhere. It may not be in this flu season might be the next flu season. We may not even note that it comes and makes itself into the general immune stream that we have. We had the issue with H11 three or four years ago. I can't recall when that press conference was, but we now have H11 circulating in Belize. I know we were very cautious three or four years ago about that, but I don't know when the first case was in Belize. After that we seem to kind of to handle down. It is circulating and people are dying of H11 every year. We had a press conference around the Zika topic. I think we managed to find out where the first index cases were from our end but now, we have Zika virus circulating in the pool of viruses and now covid 19 is on the horizon. The response really ought to be the same in terms of surveillance and public health measures, the routine and the changes as we move along."

Dr. Russell Manzanero - National Epidemiologist, MOH
"On the 30th of January, WHO director general declared the outbreak of Covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern and to date we have 24 countries that have now have ongoing transmission. What is likely is exported cased of Covid-19 are expected to occur, particularly with the degree of mobilization and travel."