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This morning, the Ministry of Health held a media breakfast. It's part of a continued engagement with the press in the effort to bring reliable, timely and accurate information to the public. Because, let's face it, rumours are running WILD right about now. The session lasted two and a half hours and covered key areas such as how the first confirmed case will be announced, preventative measures for the disease, and whether your should visit elderly loved ones at this time.

Public Information Officer for the Ministry Claudette Norales shared a how - to survival guide for COVID-19:..

Claudette Dakers Noralez- Information Officer Ministry of Health
"For the Belize Context, COVID19 is a part of a line of flues. We have had situations in the past with zika, which chikungunya, we still have the situation with dengue, as we speak we still have cases for now. It is basically for persons to please heed the advice from the Ministry of Health. We can curb the transmission of the sickness when it enters this country because it is not a matter of if, it's when. We ask you to continue to regularly wash your hands with soap, with running water; you can use a hand sanitizers, 70% alcohol base. There is also ways of making your own sanitizer. As well, practice good cough sneeze etiquette, social distancing. It is basically to keep stressing on the preventative measures, so that when COVID19 comes to Belize there is mitigation in the spread of the infection. The Ministry, myself, I've already drafted the first announcement press release and this is based on practices that have been done within the Caribbean, we work closely with CARPHA. The press release will announce the first case as soon as we have lab confirmation. The way we see the announcement coming out, the head of the lab will share the information with the Director of Health Services, the information will then be shared with the Minister of Health and the Office of the Prime Minister. Ideally, depending on the time of this announcement, we will do a live broadcast through the assistance of the Government Press office to have either the Minister, the Prime Minister or the Director of Health Services to publicly announce that we have confirmed our first case. Immediately following that live announcement a press release will be sent out and as well, our international partners who need to know of this first case will also be notified as soon as possible. This is a virus, there is no treatment for viruses. The normal course would be to have plenty of rest, drink plenty of water, continue eating vegetables and fruits, have a healthy diet, if you have underlying conditions that may cause complications with the infection then we ask you to keep taking your medications prescribed by your doctor, to keep getting a follow up on it. Basically, it is a flu, it is virus, there is no treatment for it- rest, plenty of water, social distancing."

Kathleen Azueta Cho - Technical Advisor, Ministry of Health
"We are pretty much strengthening our forces, going into the schools, all the education materials have been shared among all these organizations and line ministries. The idea is to keep the prevention messages going. Every day precautions, washing your hands, avoid touching your faces, especially around the young students, young children. You asked about mass gatherings, we are discouraging having these large crowds, especially for the older folks, the individual 60 plus, you know just stay home, avoid being in contact with places or crowds where you will come across people who are showing symptoms of the flu or the cold. So, we are just being vigilant, being extra cautious until the Ministry of Health decides to bring in or enforce these measures to heighten or scale up these measures then we will probably look at shutting down schools or postponing or cancelling any of these mass gatherings. Until we get that official information out then we could proceed in that direction."

Reporter
"Are you guys working with the private sector in terms of employee security? Also the fact that if someone gets ill that person will need to be sent home and all those different precautions."

Kathleen Azueta Cho
"In terms of the education component, we are doing some of these sensitization sessions with the business community. We have our district officers in all these district meetings with Bowen and Bowen, Social Security, DFC, with the Magistrate's Court, again just to get them informed and more knowledgeable about what to do. Then based on that information these organizations will then decide on their own plan of action. When it comes to being at home now, individuals will want to know, well, what can I do for my loved one. Again, prevention measures, hand washing, use of sanitizers, avoid touching your face. You want to start thinking about stocking up on supplies. Be knowledgeable and understand the medication that maybe your loved on is taking, you know, if they are diabetic, if they are hypertensive, if they have some underlying condition such as respiratory disease or chronic kidney disease, you want to look at that plan, stock up on those medications. If you have people with wounds or diabetics, you want to look at what can we do, what can we start stocking up and having that as a plan."