Belize now has confirmed case #22 of the coronavirus in Belize - and this time it's a Guatemalan border jumper out west.
He was caught entering the country illegally - through the western border on Saturday. He was swabbed as soon as he was taken into the quarantine centre at the Victor Galvez stadium. That quarantine centre was holding the most persons; up to yesterday there were 32 in total, and 22 of them are Guatemalans. So, that's a lot of people who could have been exposed and the contact tracing exercise has started.
The facility was full to above capacity and only got some breathing room yesterday when police took 15 of them to court.
And, that area is active with border jumpers from Guatemala and three were intercepted on Friday at a police checkpoint in Unitedville. They were detained, but what about the Belizean who was driving them? Reports say he may have had some connections and been allowed to go home. The Commissioner of police today told us that no such thing happened:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"I can tell you though that the Belizean who was with those individuals is presently in custody and as soon as his quarantine period is over, he will be charged by immigration department for harboring illegal immigrants."
Jules Vasquez
"Was he moving these people with willful knowledge? I'm told it was 6 and not 3."
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"It was him and 3 Guatemalans. They were in the same vehicle. We cannot speak as to whether or not it was willful knowledge, but they were in the same vehicle. He was the only Belizean among them and so it have to be assumed that that was the case. I can tell you that the quarantine center in San Ignacio was overcrowding and yesterday evening police were able to arraign 15 of those persons from the quarantine center and they went to prison and so that have now given us some breathing room at the quarantine center in San Ignacio."
Going back to the Coronavirus testing, in total, 45 samples were processed yesterday - and one of those was a negative result for patient #19 - he's one of the cruise ship employees who had been staying at the Radisson. When his positive test appeared 12 days ago, it ended Belize's run of 53 days without a positive test. But, he is now considered fully recovered and is being released from quarantine as a recovered case. He never showed symptoms or had to hospitalized.
In total, of the 1,957 COVID tests done in Belize, the greatest number of tests, 862 were done In the Belize District, with 10 positives. Cayo has the second highest number with 562 tests, and 7 positives.
And right now, there are 3 active cases: 1 female, and 2 males - all who entered Belize in the last two weeks - two of them illegally.
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