After 53 days without a positive case, tonight, we can confirm that COVID Case #19 has appeared in Belize.
It is a 27 year old male who came off a cruise ship- almost two weeks ago - and went directly into mandatory quarantine.
Definitely not good news, but it could be a whole lot worse. First, it is an imported case; second, this person should have been under strict quarantine at the Radisson, and third, he is asymptomatic at this time, meaning he isn't showing any symptoms of the disease.
Case #19 was detected after tests were done yesterday on the 10 cruise ship workers who had come in on that Saturday. They were being tested at the end of their quarantine to see if they could be released today or tomorrow.
But, with this positive test, all that is now off. And another process of contact tracing and even reviewing hotel surveillance cameras begins. Director of Health Services, Dr. Marvin Manzanero told us more via phone a few minutes ago:
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Service
"The person that was detected positive day one starts today or yesterday. We have to do contact tracing so that have started, that's currently ongoing. Based on whatever we are able to do in terms of the interview process then we will determine the risk of the others and make a determination whether we will be able to release them early next week, we have to test the, again before we release them and we have to ask them to stay there for a longer period."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"How sure can we be that this patient 19, case #19 did observes strictly all the rules of the quarantine?"
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
"I am assuming there are security cameras as well in the hotel that we have to back and review that part of the contact tracing to identify whether there was any other interaction and be guided by all the people who are going to be interviewed. We have not interviewed all at one time. They will be interviewed separately. We have to do real detective work and we start together and make determination after that. Even if he may have had casual interaction with somebody since he has been there, we don't anticipate that the interaction to have been that significant to have infected other. As I said the other 9 people are negative for the time being."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Would you underscore the importance of the quarantine? We know that more people will be coming home now and a lot of them will be trying to ask for home quarantine or to get out of the state ordered quarantine. It's expensive and it's quite inconvenient."
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
"This is important that people understand that we need to get it right and that's why the repatriation process is not so easy, because we need to make sure that everything is taken care of the moment you land in Belize either at any of the entry border points or at the airport whenever those flights start to arrive. That's the importance of having isolation of high suspect cases of cruise ship workers being able to detect early and that are key elements in terms of being able to contain it. I think we are pretty much satisfied that this will be a contained case."
So, as you herd, the contract tracing begins, which include interviewing the 9 others who came in with Case #19. Also, those 9 tested negative yesterday, so they may be released next week. And, also Dr. Manzanero says that due to the quarantine, he expects this case #19 will be a contained case; he does not believe that he has infected others because he has been under quarantine for the last 13 days.
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