And, tonight Belizeans are coming off another weekend when the news of 100 new cases and two deaths were just mind numbing. When we left you on Friday, it was with news of death #3, Luis Romero Sr, the 52 year old Belize City man who was diagnosed too late and died shortly after they got him to the COVID ICU unit at the KHMH.

And, on Saturday night, 63 year old Carlos Peralta from Orange Walk died at a private clinic from a heart attack. After he died, a test found that he was positive for COVID 19. It seems he may have contracted it from a family member from San Pedro who visited his home in Orange Walk. But, at this time, his death is not being classed as a COVID related death. The Director of Health Services told us he has to wait on the death certificate to determine if it is a COVID related death.

And to zoom out now to the national picture, tonight Belize has 452 confirmed cases, which puts this country at fourth overall in the Caribbean, ahead of highly populated countries such as Jamaica and Trinidad.

And Belize is moving fast up that list because the number of cases has tripled in just the last week - and it is almost 9 times more than it was at the beginning of this month. Indeed, the rate of increase can make your head spin, and there are 414 active cases tonight.

The centre of infection continues to be San Pedro with 158 cases, and Orange Walk's numbers are also steadily climbing. The Ministry of Health reported 32 new cases detected in Orange Walk between Friday and Saturday. Most of the cases were Yo Creek but there were also cases also in Guinea Grass, San Jose Palmar, August Pine Ridge, and Orange Walk Town.

And, out in Cayo, there were 11 cases detected this weekend coming out of Belmopan, Benque Viejo, San Jose Succotz, Bullet Tree, Duck Run and Santa Elena. Included in there are frontline workers: four of the 5 public health inspectors at Western Regional Hospital reportedly have tested positive. We understand they all share one small office. These are the field officers involved in contact tracing and mapping exercises.