And while we're all facing the grim spectre of a coming Coronavirus, the truth is, it may already be here. Yes, indeed. While visitors and citizens returning to the country are screened for flu like symptoms, the fact is that COVID-19 can incubate for two weeks without an infected persons showing symptoms. Yesterday, we asked the Prime Minister about the possibility, even the likelihood that COVID-19 is already in Belize, it's just that the symptoms may not have appeared yet:
Jules Vasquez
"Are we seducing ourselves in a false sense of security? We are hearing all these prognostication based on persons who are symptomatic. But, from the little that is known, the incubation period, the person may well be asymptomatic and that may be for 14 days when they are transmitters of the virus. Is this not a concern?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"Not because there is no confirmed case does that mean that there is no case in Belize. You are perfectly correct. If we told ourselves that it could well be that we would be fooling ourselves but surely, it was not an easy decision. It was not as though we dismissed out of hand any possibility of the shutdown. We looked carefully and decided that we will proceed in this fashion understanding that your point is absolutely valid. We take some risk when we do that but if indeed because of the incubation period there are cases that are already here just that the symptoms have not manifested, the shutdown wouldn't have helped those; they are already here."
Email
Print