7 News Belize

On-Site Self-Self-Funded Quarantine
posted (March 30, 2020)
And while testing will increase, so is the vigilance at the border. The fact is if Belizeans get to the borders, they cannot be denied entry to their own country. And, last we checked, the CANCUN AirPort was still partially opened.

But, now when they cross that border, they will face a mandatory on-site quarantine. The Principal Public Health Inspector outlined this on this evening's ask the experts session:

John Bodden, Principal Public Health Inspector
"We are at the point now whereby we are enforcing that anybody coming into the country will have to go into immediate quarantine and as such we need to ensure that the facilities are up to scale in terms of the coordination for the use of these facilities and so we have a number of individuals from different organizations who will be participating with us in this activity. We have the Belize Red Cross, we have individuals from NEMO as well as our community health workers. These individuals will be looking at different none contact processes in terms of managing these facilities. So we do know that we have the one in Corozal already up and running. The individuals in these facilities is in no way showing any signs and symptoms, so it's not really of risk to these individuals and what they will be looking at is basically the daily management of these things from a distance, because there is no need for direct intervention with the individuals who are in these places."

"We've had for a time now where we've said that the border is closed only to Belizeans and as such we have people who are migrating from the US and they are reaching or borders and they are Belizeans and so we need to accommodate them, but we still need to look at the potential risk that exist with these individuals and ensure that we have a mechanism to quarantine them and to monitor them over the duration. We know that in most case we've been looking at the 14 day period, but we have extend this now based on research that we now need to extend this to 21 days. I think what is imperative to let the public know at this point in time is that anyone who goes into these facilities would have the obligation to make payment and it's a $110 which includes the food. Obviously this would be something that would have to be paid and hopefully it can also be a deterrent for those people who are trying to come in country."

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7 News Belize