Belize now has 21 confirmed cases of COVID 19, after patient 21 appeared in tests done on Saturday night.
He is a middle aged male who arrived on a flight from Houston on Friday - and is in quarantine at the Princess Hotel.
He is not showing any symptoms - but, interestingly, arrived with a negative result from a rapid tests he had done in Houston. The PCR test done in Belize, proved that to be a false negative.
Director of Health Services, Dr Marvin Manzanero told us more about patient 21, and the recovered patient 19 via zoom video conference:
Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"It's not really anything out of the book. The fact that you are picking them up on arrival I think a plus. This patient #21 I must say had a rapid test when he came in. He and 2 other persons arrived on that flight came in with rapid test done in the Houston area, but that's also something we are looking at. The rapid test when they came in were negative. Patient #19 already has one negative sample processed on Friday, so he is going to be swabbed today. If he is negative in the samples that will be run tomorrow, then he would have recovered. These are not going to be your second wave when you look at it at the standpoint. Of course they rack up numbers and that's good. It allows you to look at your process, not only in terms of numbers, but it also validates your surveillance mechanism, it validates your repatriation process from the health standpoint whether you are doing things right and fixing as you go along. We are getting a lot of feedback in people saying how can you be so contented that you are picking up cases, but that's the value of having an active surveillance system, a mechanism that works."
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