7 News Belize

Fatal Accident Claims 50 Year Old
posted (April 20, 2020)
50-year-old Octavio Cowo, a farmer from Liberty Avenue, Orange Walk, was killed in an accident on Friday night. It happened at around 8:30 when Cowo lost control of his pickup truck. The vehicle flipped several times, finally landing 3 feet off the highway near the bypass between the Tower Hill road and the San Estevan cutoff.

Cowo sustained severe and ultimately fatal head injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was later identified by his Son Octavio Cowo Jr.







Fires Raging, Polluting Western Skies

Last week, we told you how the Ministry of the Environment intended to get tough on Belizeans who are still setting bonfires during the COVID-19 State of Emergency, and the drought that the country is facing.

The CEO said that a draft statutory instrument was being prepared which would criminalize the starting of any kind of fires. The concern is that the accompanying smoke is polluting the air, and that could compromise the respiratory systems of citizens, causing them to be more susceptible to the coronavirus.

Well, residents of Santa Elena town sent us pictures of the haze of smoke that lingered over the twin towns today, all the way into the evening. They say today's air pollution was the worst they've seen it so far. Satellite images show an alarming 181 bush fires across the country.








The San Pedro Exodus

On March 23rd., the island town of San Pedro became Belize's official COVID-19 ground zero. And shortly after the announcement of the first confirmed case of COVID-19, the island was completely locked down with no one allowed to leave or return. Hundreds of people were left stranded on the island, the majority of them seasonal workers. They've been trying to leave ever since and some of them managed to. But Saturday morning saw the largest group yet finally get off the island. Cherisse Halsall was out there and she has the story.

It was early Saturday morning when this line started forming. It wasn’t a line to a bank or a store; it wasn’t even a breadline. It was the line to leave San Pedro.

It started on the Ocean ferry pier but wound all the way back to the shore.

These people were desperate to get off the island. They weren't among the lucky few who managed to flee on day one of the lockdown.

But on Saturday, day 26, 300 of them came bags in hand moving determinedly toward boats to Belize City

And before they left the island a special blessing to protect them on their journeys home.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"These are persons who have undergone the quarantine progress in San Pedro but just to ensure that the proper thing is done they are still doing the screening before leaving San Pedro to Belize City."

"It is an operation being led by the Ministry of Health and the police are supporting I know that Mr. Noble out in San Pedro has been very active to ensure that the proper things are being done in terms of the regulations and from Belize City side we are here we are waiting for the arrival of these persons that are coming in because what we want is that when they enter Belize City that they don’t stray all over the place that they’re in a contained area. Buses will be here to pick them up and take them to their respective destinations."

"The government has chartered these buses to facilitate these persons going to their respective homes and these were persons who were not from San Pedro but they were trapped in San Pedro due to the state of emergency that was declared and they couldn’t leave San Pedro. They were there perse stranded."

But while 300 more made it home on Saturday many remain stuck.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I know that there are more people in San Pedro who need to be repatriated. I think it’s close to a thousand so they may be more in the coming days."

Despite being scanned and re-scanned, those who returned to their mainland homes have still been ordered to isolate for 14-21 days.







7News And The Compol

On Saturday night, 45 year old Patachakan resident Noel Elias Arzu reached the KHMH in a critical condition. He had been in an accident of some type and sustained serious spinal injury. He was experiencing respiratory distress, and that caused great concern among the front-line staff at the KHMH. His family tells us there was a delay to even take him out of the ambulance, and the Director of Health Services confirms he was flagged as a possible case of COVID 19. He was also intubated on a respirator.

By Sunday evening, he tested negative for COVID, but Arzu died at 7:30 this morning from his other very serious accident injuries.

But, that concern that he was a possible COVID case came to our attention and we posted the information on our Facebook page as a possible case.

And when the test results were announced we changed the information to reflect that he had tested negative.

But, the Facebook mob always wants blood. And, they pressured the Commissioner of Police to charge 7News for spreading false information. Of course, our information was not false, he was flagged as a possible case. The Commissioner explained the case as he saw it today:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Now the question is, in order for us to proceed with a prosecution. The law is that the post must be false and two it must create public alarm or put the public in a state of panic. Upon seeing the post we investigated. The first person I contacted was the DHS to see whether or not the information was true and the DHS assured me that they would have put out a release on the matter which I subsequently saw and he also said that KHMH was also going to put out their own release in respect to the matter. Now is the post false? Let me dissect it. Patient at the hospital, Yes a patient was there. Two, did the patient have respiratory problems? Yes. Was the Patient on a ventilator? Yes. Was KHMH dealing with the patient as a COVID-19 case? Yes. Were there concerns that the hospital workers may have been exposed while the patient was admitted, had he been positive for COVID-19? The answer is Yes. I even saw photographs with the medical practitioners in their full regalia while they were dealing with the patient. So, in essence, the post by channel 7 was premature, yes, but it was not false. And so based on that there can be no prosecution."

Cherisse Halsall:
"How dangerous is that law in terms of the Press because we often get information that is half-true or could be wrongly represented but it’s our duty to move forward with these things that we have..."

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I don’t want it to seem as if we’re trying to suppress the media. That would be the last thing I would want to do. I respect the work that you all as media people do. I only ask that you be a bit more responsible at times like these. The minute somebody hears about COVID-19 everybody starts to panic, right and so when it comes to reporting we have to be more responsible."







Noel Arzu's Mysterious Demise

And the family of Noel Arzu wants answers. Police are saying they believe he was in some sort of traffic accident - but the family says they have no idea how he ended dup in the hospital with very serious injuries.

He had knowledge of smuggling operations, and some dangerous associates - according to our information. The information of his history of travel to Mexico is another reason he was flagged as a possible COVID case at the KHMH. Again, he tested negative for that but died of other serious accident injuries.







Cops' Changing Role

Earlier you heard the commissioner speak about weighing charges against a media house for allegation of mis reporting. These are among the changing roles police now have to embrace:

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"In the times that we’re in it’s really tough times and the police we see our roles changing or we have to be making adjustments to our roles every day we’re encountering new challenges and we must be versatile enough to be able to ensure that we overcome them and find means and ways to address them and so it’s the new norm for now and the officers are adjusting yes they do make missteps from time to time. Like I said we must not crucify them for those missteps, our security forces, our doctors, our nurses. They are our heroes right now and they deserve to be commended for the excellent job that they’ve been doing."






If Found With Fonto

And versatility has leant itself flexibility when judging who should and should not be on the streets after curfew. But the Commissioner says if you're out to buy fonto you're going to jail.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"We see people out buying one soft drink, buying one monster, buying fonto, it's just amazing what you see but people find every reason to be on the streets and we cannot tolerate it. If it is that you're out to buy a soft drink or a monster that’s not a reason we’re going to send you back home. If you're out to buy fonto we’ll arrest you because obviously it’s weed you're going to smoke. So we need to have good reasons to be out."






"Tapeboss" Taken To Station

He's a self-proclaimed social media influencer so it shouldn't have been strange last week when Roderick Wade aka TapeBoss' video went viral on Facebook. And it wasn't long after it was posted that the video began to receive a lot of attention, that is negative attention. And this afternoon Wade was detained by police. Reports say that his home was searched and computer equipment was confiscated in an effort to retrieve pornographic material, particularly any which may involve minors.

That's because Wade's viral video entitled Storytime truly sinister turn where he admitted to raping a sexual partner.

Shortly after in a press release referencing sexual assault the Special Envoy for Women and children condemned the video as a confession of rape. And Mrs. Kim Simplis Barrow was quoted "Indignant about his obvious lack of respect regarding women and shared sexual experiences and outraged at his blatant violation of the victim's change in consent."






72,213 Unemployment Applications Submitted

The Government is reporting tonight that as of noon today, a total of 72,213 applications have been submitted electronically for aid under their Unemployment Relief Program. As viewers are aware, this was the Government's aid to Belizeans who lost their jobs when the coronavirus pandemic landed on Belizean soil.

The government says that this today's tally included some applications submitted via hard copy, and steps are being taken to enter them into the online portal.

So far 32,916 applications have been approved for payment to applicants. These include 7,106 which were approved today, and those have been forwarded to the Social Security Board for processing.

SSB has already made payments directly into the accounts for 20,153 of those applicants between April 9th, and April 17th.

Heritage Bank has also prepared 2,618 top-up ATM and Debit cards, and those have been sent to SSB offices for distribution. Not all of these cards have been prepared, and so applications will be notified accordingly by text message when their cards are ready for pick up. Those who received cards will be required to activate a personal identification number so that they can withdraw funds from the ATM, or use them for shopping at stores that accept debit cards.

The government also notes that there was a large number of applications with incorrect information. So, their information technology team is preparing an addition to the web portal, which will allow applications to go online and review the status of their application. If additional information is required to move the application to the next stage, the applicant will be directed to the numbers to call, to provide the information needed. This addition is expected to be ready for use within 2 days.

Also, the total applications that have been excluded due to ineligibility currently stand at 11,454.

These included applicants who are under 18, those who aren't Belizean nationals, or those who are already a beneficiary of another Government relief program, SSB pension, or the BOOST Program. If you are already a beneficiary of these programs, you do not qualify for aid under this one.

There are 28,159 other applications that need to be reviewed, and that process will take place as quickly as possible.

The bulk of the applications for unemployment relief were submitted during the first 6-day period of the program. Since then, applications have notably tapered off.

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