Belize's COVID 19 situation continues to worsen, and it did so quite
dramatically last night. When we left you, there were 44 new positive
cases; well, by 11:00 pm, there were another 42, bringing the day's
total to 86 more positive tests, for a total of 262 active cases.
And the hotspot areas continue to be San Pedro Town, with 41 new cases,
and now, a widening footprint of infection in the Orange Walk District,
which had 28 new cases in last night's batch of tests.
And there's a public health warning to go with that. This afternoon,
the Director of Health Services advised that a list of villages in
Orange Walk could have at least one case - and most of them from
workers linked to a construction site in San Pedro. They left the site
early this month when the San Pedro outbreak was announced.
Those villages are Douglas, San Jose, Trial Farm, San Estevan, Yo
Creek, Guinea Grass, San Pablo, August Pine Ridge. Now, none of those
villages are under lockdown, but residents would be wise to practice
all safety measures before there is the kind of community spread seen
in other Orange Walk villages.
The full outline of last night's tests also include 6 more cases in
Belize City, two more cases in Caye Caulker, and interestingly, 8 new
cases in Stann Creek. We are told 5 of those cases come out of
Independence Village - and directly from the Port of Big Creek - which
is known to have contact with Honduran vessels. One of those persons
has reportedly been taken to the KHMH after experiencing some
respiratory difficulties.
Notably, the Ministry of Health also reports that 4 more health staff
have tested positive, including 2 nurses, a lab technician, and an 1
x-ray technician. By our count, 14 medical staff are now actively
infected. That's 5% of the total active cases.
And with this sharp uptick in infection in the past 11 days, where we
have gone from 57 total cases to 296 total cases, Belize's infection
curve has climbed steeply. For context, 131 days elapsed between the
first case on March 23rd, and the 57th case on August second; and in
the ten days between August 2nd and 12th, 239 cases have appeared, a
400% increase in just over a week. Enough to give a nation whiplash,
chased by a shot of acid anxiety. Tomorrow we'll have a better idea on
how government plans to respond when we hear from the Prime Minister at
a House Meeting that will be carried live on Channel 7.
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