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Still No Answers On The Origin of COIVD Case In San Ignacio
posted (July 15, 2020)
Tonight, health authorities cannot say where Belize's COVID case #39 came from. The patient is from Santa Elena, Cayo, and he deals in scrap metal while his wife works at the market. Today on Ask The Experts, The Director of Health Services described them as a, quote, "very humble couple." end quote.

And, patient #39 had lots of informal contacts - Dr Manzanero explained:

Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Director of Health Services
"He has acknowledged, the couple has acknowledged that they have had multiple contacts by virtue of the work he does. He is into scrapping metal, that is his business. He has acknowledged that he travelled across the country over the last, because you have to go back to when he was initially swabbed, the last fourteen days trying to remember where you have been. He acknowledges that his partner does sell clothes at the market area and times she also runs a taxi. So once you have done that exercise you will realize that there is multiple contacts that this person may have had for us to determine where he got it from. We don't know where he got it, we would like to know because that makes our job easier and you try to contain cases. That's going to be task in and of itself. So his wife has been swabbed and he was also seen in private sector prior to him getting at San Ignacio hospital, so the clinician that saw him will also be swabbed and somebody else. From the exercises we did today we only have those 3 from initial close contacts that warrant swabbing. We have not been able to ascertain from the interviews that were conducted that there was any more close contacts of this couple, simply because of where they have been and where they travelled, not outside of Belize - anybody could have given it to them. Understand that this has happened before, case #7 if I can recall, we could not identify or ascertain where the person got it from, but he was from San Ignacio as well."

As we told you last night, patient 39 is a man in his 50's who showed up at the San Ignacio Community Hospital over the weekend with gastrointestinal symptoms and a loss of sense of taste.

He didn't have any signs of respiratory distress, but the examining doctor was sharp enough to test him for COVID and he came back positive. He remains in self isolation at home because he does not require hospitalisation. Currently his symptoms have abated and he is asymptomatic. The self quarantining at home has been the standard for infected persons who do not require hospitalization.

The contact tracing continues to find out where or who he might have gotten it from.

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