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But what happens if one of those visitors tests positive? Well, most likely they would be sent to the specially outfitted quarantine room at the KHMH. But, hopefully it's not too many cases, because the reality on the ground is that the hospital's quarantine room has a limited capacity for 8 adults and 2 children.

The capacity for the eastern region is not much higher with an additional 3 beds.

But despite the limited number of patients that Belize's largest and best-equipped public hospital will be able to process, the KHMH's management staff is doing their utmost to prepare for the first confirmed case of coronavirus.

Cherisse Halsall went on a walkthrough of the new coronavirus ward, an isolated space within the KHMH.

The Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital is Belize's national referral hospital, responsible for all critical care patients within Belize's public healthcare system.

And given the WHO's designation of coronavirus as a global pandemic the KHMH is being looked at as the frontline of Belize's fight against the disease. This afternoon the hospital's management team met with multiple agencies from the eastern region to better coordinate and strengthen their response plan for the coronavirus.

Michelle Hoare - C.E.O, KHMH
"Basically it was just to organize ourselves to share our agency specific response plans so that we could better coordinate and strengthen our response for this coronavirus in the event it becomes a public health concern for Belize, the country Belize."

They also gave those agencies a tour of the hospital's new coronavirus treatment area. We started in one of two anterooms, areas in which patients and personnel will change clothes and don protective personal gear before they enter the main area.

For now, this area will be used to triage patients but that could change once the first case of coronavirus has been detected. At that point, a tent is set to be erected near this security booth to screen and triage patients in an effort to determine who should be admitted and who should be sent home for self-isolation.

This is the room in which critical care coronavirus patients will be housed. CEO Hoare told us just how many people the hospital is equipped to care for.

Michelle Hoare
"The capacity for our isolation area is 8 for adults and two for paediatrics but we need to bear in mind that we're only managing critical care patience and given the nature of the disease, the corona virus infection, critical care management is on the lower end of the spectrum. So persons requiring that level support is the lower percentage. You will have however persons who may require hospitalization for other reasons and so depending on the numbers and where they are, we will be able to maybe scale it up a little for those type of patience, but in the meantime the communications with the regions is to ensure that their response plans are tight and that they are able to accommodate those person who will not require critical care admission. So that's where we are for now."

And one step being taken to curb the spread of the disease is minimal contact between patients and caregivers. Nurses will use this monitor to observe patients and only enter the room periodically to perform treatment.

Dr. Martha Habet - Acting Director of Medical Services
"We're supposed to be working in such a way that we give the service that the patients require but yet we are isolated from the rest of the hospital. We want to contain the patients that are infected in this area to avoid further exposure to other patients and staff. If you're at home and you feel like you have Coronavirus infection which will be suggestive if you have sore throat, fever, or cough. If you don't have respiratory distress or shortness of breath and you don't feel so sick, you could stay at home. The health centres are offering also screening for patience. So if you really want to know if you have coronavirus, you need to go at the health centre and see a physician will decide if you need to do the test because do the test you need to comply with certain conditions. One of them is at this point the travel history to the fact that you have being in contact with somebody who had been confirmed positive with Coronavirus. At this point we don't have Coronavirus in Belize, so we have influenza A and influenza B. So if you have symptoms, you really want to go to the hospital, it should only be if you have shortness of breath or you are really sick."

This morning we had a meeting with the central region and Ministry of Health and they are looking into the possibility or the need I should say to expand the service, to probably identify another area where we could manage other patience that are not required critical care and probably this plan should be a very elaborated plan that should include many other stakeholders rather than just the Ministry of Health. We may need to utilize the private hospitals as well but at this point that is a plan and they have to really elaborate on that plan."

That plan, whatever its completed contents, is Belize's best hope to overcome the infection that has gripped the world. But is it sufficient? That is still a matter of debate.

As for the KHMH's proactive yet limited efforts, you could say that any plan is better than no plan at all. Our walk through the improvised clean rooms impressed upon us the seriousness with which it is being treated.

And as the tour concluded we were shown the ramp which would be used to remove any bodies, bodies of patients who may lose their lives in the fight against the coronavirus - a grim reminder that this is not a simulation.