And while police and health workers are doing their best to stop smugglers and contact trace, there is only so much they can do. And how will they manage after August 15th when as many as a thousand visitors and returning Belizeans per week start coming in from the US?
Today in a House of Representatives meeting that was all about tabling legislation to make Belize ready for an airport re-opening - the Prime Minister got very riled up when he spoke about the possibility of community spread on tourism mecca San Pedro where he said a number of persons are showing symptoms:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minster of Belize
"The situation on Ambergris Caye, in fact the situation in several areas is extremely worrying, the minister of health…how many people you testing in Corozal? 40? 40 persons have to be tested in Corozal, In San Pedro as we know there is one person already confirmed positive. One institution got in touch to say, 4 out of 7 employees of that institution, I won't call the name, on San Pedro, 4 are showing symptoms and not mild symptoms, they have lost their sense of smell, fever, they are going to be tested today but the person who already prove positive is in an occupation where she, I think we can reveal the gender, where she has to entertain, she has to deal with a host of people so that mapping and tracing, the tracing and tracking exercise that the ministry will do in my view is likely to produce several more positive cases in San Pedro, you think we will hesitate to quarantine San Pedro if it turns out that that is what is necessary after the tracing and mapping exercise has been completed. What will that do to the re-opening, most of the people who come want to go to San Pedro we will have to send to notify them that they can't come because you can't go to San Pedro to Ambergris Caye. I hope to God it doesn't happen. Madam speaker I already heard the Minster of Education say look, again while we want to re-open schools, we need to re-open schools for all sorts of purposes including the mental health of the children and the parents that in border communities in those areas where the jumpers proliferate and we are reaping the world wind now in those areas, he is perfectly prepared to say school can't re-open there, when our own behavior will provoke a situation where we are swamped we will have to go back to lockdown, this continues, initially in particular areas, ultimately if we don't stop and get our act together the whole country will go into lockdown again. What is that going to do to our economy. Let me make clear, August 15th is not particularly far away but I am telling you if it turns out that there is a serious outbreak in San Pedro that is going to be it, Kaput, travel to the island will be verboten, forbidden. If we are, if we re-open the PGIA the 15th we will be ready. And in even if we are completely ready I am telling you if there turns out to be a community spread in Ambergris Caye that's going to be it. We will pull the trigger. Can't work."
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