Email

Print

Moving forward, the national testing schedule will be outlined on a calendar, and will only be altered under suspicion of a cluster or individual case.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"We are not doing testing every day now. This week we have ran tests Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are going to run another batch tomorrow and we are publishing a calendar of activities in terms of when we are doing testing. We are only going to be doing testing on a specific day if we have any potential cluster or any patient that we have a high suspicion that the patient is potentially positive then we are going to run a test on a specific day."

Cases Under Investigation

And through Tuesday's batch of tests, we learned that the last two confirmed cases had come back with a second negative test, meaning that they had shed the COVID virus. It also meant that there were zero cases of COVID-19 in Belize.

And since then attention has shifted from the number of confirmed cases to the number of cases under investigation. But what constitutes a case under investigation?

According to Manzanero, it's all those who have been swabbed and who's sample has been sent to Central Medical Lab for processing.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"So when you look at the persons under investigation from the infographic yesterday you had a total of 33 persons. The number today is more than likely going to be bigger and so in the infographic reflected today you are going to see a bigger number and that's the only change you are going to see. What does persons under investigations mean? It doesn't mean that these people are necessarily symptomatic persons or that they are linked to the previously documented cases. The reasons why we are saying persons under investigation is the lab only lumps all the persons whose sample has arrived for testing at the central medical lab. The lab doesn't make the clinical differentiation of where these patients are coming from. So from the people that are under investigation for right now, there is some diabetic patients, some hypertensive patients, some HIV patients that are having flu-like symptoms, some healthcare workers who have develop symptoms. People who are crossing the border illegally and we found last weekend at the northern border who they were all swabbed - people who had a boat incident enroute to the US docked in Placencia, they were swabbed, a Belizean who was caught illegally in Guatemala return to Belize down in PG - that person was swabbed, a Guatemalan caught in Belizean territory detained in PG, that person was also swabbed. Randomization in terms of testing is happening either inadvertently or because you are purposely looking for them, so it's not people who are routinely now tied to the individual cases that we had previously identified."

Focussing On the Frontline

Last week 16 BDF personnel, Police, and immigration officers ended up under investigation. It's a new testing tactic focusing on the frontline workers who have contact with a wide array of people. It's set to expand next week and today Manazanero broke down exactly who can expect to be tested.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"We have tested so far out of this total number 16 people random from BDF, police and immigration. 19 persons who work at banks. So these are frontline people who you would routinely expect them to be more exposed simply because of the amount of people that they are seeing routinely. In our list to do random testing we have people from elderly homes, not only the persons who are being housed in the elderly homes, but staff that works there and again it doesn't mean that the entire staff is going to be swabbed. You are going to do a random check on them. We are looking at the possibility of testing randomly pregnant women as well, people from call centers randomly, people from the utility companies, water taxi and other transportation meaning such as people who are pilots and bus drivers."

Beware the Borders

Another subset of suspicious cases come from illegal border entries, the greatest threat to Belize's current state of being in a safe silo. And they may be more numerous than you think or can keep track of. Manzanero laid them out earlier today.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"Last weekend we had people at the northern border who they were all swabbed - people who had a boat incident en-route to the US docked in Placencia, they were swabbed, a Belizean who was caught illegally in Guatemala and return to Belize down in PG - that person was swabbed, a Guatemalan caught in Belizean territory detained in PG, that person was also swabbed. Randomization in terms of testing is happening either inadvertently or because you are purposely looking for them, so it's not people who are routinely now tied to the individual cases that we had previously identified and this is part of the testing routine and scale up testing that are starting to see."

Don't Sleep On Dengue

And while you can stop people from coming across the border you can't stop mosquitoes. They are the vectors for Dengue. The number of cases was especially bad last year and may be so again this year. And that's why Manzanero says don't worry about the recent rain giving you a flu or cold, beware of Dengue.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"We actually have not seen people get the flu just because there is more rain. Dengue is a concern, ZIKA is a concern, chikungunya is a concern. We are started to see patients particularly up north who are having dengue. Dengue cases are increasing. The vector control department has been told, of next week they go back to their routine activities to curtail the dengue situation. We don't want to be caught up on having to deal with 2 different outbreaks at any point in time. Understanding that some of the symptoms from dengue can mask and be similar to Covid-19. I can tell you that some of the patients that have been having fever, headache - typical dengue symptoms have also been swabbed for Covid-19 and have initially been, even though they have the classic dengue symptoms, have been considered as a potential Covid-19 case. So we are looking at that particular matter."

What Do Churches, Cars and Casinos Have in Common?

And whether you waiting for a sip from the sacred chalice or a drink at the bar you'll be waiting for a while that's because Churches, Bars, and Casinos are all on the list of establishments that create mass gatherings and won't be opening anytime soon.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"This is a very tricky situation. I've been getting lots of calls and messages by different smaller churches asking when is it going to open and again it goes back to the same question I had last week of the river, of even in a swimming pool in a public place. The issue is not the swimming pool, the issue is not the church, the issue is not the river. The fact is that you have a gathering of people coming from different environments that you are not able to determine where they are coming from and that's the reason why our advice has been against for right now having a mass gathering then literally, a social distancing element. I think what we can ask from the churches and everybody who eventually is going to have gatherings of people is what consideration are you having? Or what provisions are you making for whenever you are allowed to open to ensure that the physical distancing measures which is our new norm will continue to be there."

"Does this mean that bars, nightclubs, casinos can be able to transition to opening? Pardon the comparison and I don't want people to get offended, but you might say it's the same structure - social gathering for different purposes of course, but a casino, bar, restaurant, church - it's the social distancing, physical distancing aspect that we are concern about. It's the fact that you have people from all different sectors coming in and we have not been able to determine how we are going to handle those bigger groups."

And on another note about the health response to the COVID 19 situation, tonight, the management of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital is publicly thanking all who were involved in getting the facility prepared to take on COVID-19 cases as the country's national referral hospital.

A press release from KHMH notes that the staff was able to team up in extraordinary ways to prepare and execute the hospital's plan for addressing the pandemic.

The statement says, quote, "Today our country has no active COVID cases, a feat that requires celebration and appreciation as we see our fellow nations continue to battle ever-increasing numbers of the affected and infected regionally and internationally." End quote.

The management then goes on to thank the 21 members of their maintenance staff, who were crucial in retrofitting the facility in preparation for COVID; all the medical staff assigned to the COVID-19 Isolation Unit; the support staff; the ancillary support staff; the Board Members; the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Finance; and PAHO.

They are also expressing gratitude to the corporations and the citizens who donated generously to help the hospital prepare for the possibility of taking on positive COVID-19 cases.

After The Unemployment Gate Closed

And finally tonight on the national response to COVID 19 - what about those unemployed who got left behind. We mean those ones who lost their jobs after the COVID 19 relief program was closed. The press asked the Prime Minister about tit today:â€Â¦

Reporter
"We see where in the beginning of the month of May a number of employers are only now either laying off or terminating their employees. What advice can be given to those employees who are left basically without a salary? Are you guys considering reopening the unemployment relief program?"

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"At this time we have already said that if it becomes necessary we will do so. But remember I spoke about over 40,000 applicants having been approved. The total number of applications has exceeded 80,000 persons and I made the point that the approval system is being clogged, because a number of the last batch of applications - those applications are proving to be patently inaccurate, to put it kindly. I don't want to say fraudulent or bogus. When that process is completed of trying to weed out from the 80,000 plus applications, those that, to put it kindly, simply don't qualify, then we have to give thought to the reopening."