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One part of the country that the COVID-19 scare caused an unnecessary commotion is in Orange Walk Town this morning.

That's where residents worked themselves into a frenzy after rumors went out that the Ministry was investigating possible cases of the virus 2 well-known supermarkets in that northern town. 

The bogus reports were that the 2 Chinese Belizean proprietors have recently visited China and that they supposedly entered the country through an illegal border entry point. The rumors continued that these proprietors were supposedly displaying severe flu-like symptoms.

This evening, the Director of Health Services gave a few comments to address that situation:

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"The Orange Walk situation which I think has prodded our communication, we are no longer communicating with anybody individually in terms of the amount of rumours, it's turning out to be overwhelming. Now we don't have any suspect case in Orange Walk, we followed the due process, any rumour that comes to us, what we will do is send a team verify whether there is any basis to what they are saying, the one in Orange Walk, there is absolutely no basis for what frenzy has apparently happened. We have to continue to communicate to all media houses that nobody is going to an exclusive, so I don't know if we should be chasing the index case. If you would allow us to do the work that we are supposed to do, the detective work, report if you have a rumour situation, let us deal with it because what it turns out to be is that in point of fact, anything is happening, you're going to have people going into hiding or people not willing to share the information with us. We are really asking that we be respectful of the process and be respectful of people's privacy in this regard."