Tonight, there is concern in the Orange Walk District after three minors yesterday tested positive for COVID 19.
According to a posting last night by the Director of Health Services these latest positive results come from 3 minors of a family that illegally crossed the border.
That's very concerning and the Ministry of Health warns, quote, "we at health remain very much concerned with the ongoing illegals crossings…we are now anticipating clusters in these communities at the rate we are going." End quote.
That is a very dire warning - and we asked the DHS to outline his concerns. I spoke to him via zoom video conference an hour ago:
Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"We identified 3 new cases, they are all related. There are people who have identified as people who were crossing the border illegally."
Reporter
"I'm a resident of Orange Walk, how worried should I be given that these minors, I believe they are, they were in the community circulating, what does that mean?"
Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"Again, go back to the message we have been telling people to heed as we move along, every person you meet on the street you have to assume that they are a potential suspect. That's why the relevance of social/physical distancing and wearing a mask are always important. So if you are in casual contact with these persons I don't think you need to be worried. If you are just all over the place in public places with no mask and no physical distancing, then you have to be concerned, but its tie to levels of responsibility. I don't know that these children were all over the place. The contact tracing in my notes has not concluded and they went to the community where they are from, because they are not from Orange Walk and I think people are also getting confused as to who these persons are and as I tell people I dont think we need to give names or ethnicity of the persons. As long as everybody is taken their personal responsibility then you don't need to know the names of persons."
Reporter
"Do you believe that this could be an index point for community spread in the north?"
Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"We have to first check out the community where they are from and how they are behaving. It can be community spread yes. Orange Walk people, should they be concerned, yes. But we have also been calling on the communities to report any abnormal situation, but yet people seem to know where you can get contraband stuff in Orange Walk. People know where you can go and get the contraband beer, so how does it get here? And we don't worry about the contraband beer, but we worry about Covid-19. That's something that shouldn't really happen, but it happens. And so that I think is where the concern has got to be. Understand also that Orange Walk was also the last district to have cases. Now they have 7 out of 11 active cases; 5 of those are illegal jumpers; the last 3 don't seem to have been caught upon entry into Orange Walk, so the contact tracing exercise can be extensive this time around."
The DHS says that were there to be community spread in the north he would make recommendations for the government to quarrantine that part of the country.
These 3 cases now bring Orange Walk DISTRiCT'S total to 7.
Unofficial reports say the cases came out of Blue Creek village in northwestern Belize.
The Ministry says all border communities are…being asked to remain extra vigilant and to report any suspicious case.
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