On Friday, Luis Romero Sr. was one of those persons briefly placed on ventilator. But it was too late for him, and the father of two died shortly after.
As we told you on Friday, his family was incensed because they felt like the Ministry of Health had turned its back on them, when they tried to get a COVID test for him - after his son started showing symptoms.
Now, they are turning that anger into action by circulating a petition demanding testing for at-risk persons.
Today, his daughter Shumari spoke with us via Zoom teleconference and she told us that her family can't properly grieve because - a number of them are COVID positive and cannot be together:
Shumari Romero, Daughter
'And then my mother and sister-in-law and nephew they have to be in a separate home as well and my then my brother currently is hospitalized. He is in there and they are checking up on him to make sure he is good and off the oxygen machine. It's been quite hard to be honest."
Jules Vasquez
"Now in an event like a Covid death, they had to cremate him within hours."
Shumari Romero, Daughter
"Well we know we wouldn't be allowed to see him from the moment they said that it was Covid. Although that came after the fact that we weren't even advised that he was positive. We learnt from the social media."
Jules Vasquez
"How many members from your family have Covid-19 diagnosis?'
Shumari Romero, Daughter
"Currently 3, my dad that's the 4th one."
Jules Vasquez
"Explain to me your position on your father's inability to get a Covid-19 test."
Shumari Romero, Daughter
"It started with my brother. He was the one that was - since he was going to the club like one in one out instances on the weekends, he was the one that started off with the symptoms and everything. He wanted to get tested. He called and they spoke to him about it and he said that they just pre-screen him over the phone - said if he goes into the clinic they will just give him meds and just call it that, because right now a strong flu is going around and then on Friday one of the DJs around - he came out and say he was positive. So that was maybe the link to my brother. Monday he got his test done and my father he was not really experiencing anything drastic, just like a cough and we were waiting for my brother's results to determine of everyone needs to get tested. No one answered. It took until Thursday morning last week to get the results and then on that same day when they call and said okay my brother is positive, we were okay, they did like the contact tracing and they told my brother just my mother, my sister-in-law and my nephew needed to get tested. I was annoyed, I was angry, because I was like why not my father and I told them to take him still. My brother said the lady said that more than likely he has it already, so just give him meds and give him treatment and then later on that's when my dad progressed with the breathing issues in the night. So my brother ending up calling the same person that told him my dad didn't need anything and the morning that's when they called for the ambulance to go and get him. That was at 6am, the ambulance reached the home until 9am. Because my dad is a plus size person, my brother told them that they will need more assistance to get him out of the house and they still didn't bring anyone. SO until like around 11am they got through. I try to think that okay if they had asked if he is an elderly person or a high risk person if that would have alarmed them to say yes let him come in and get tested. But even so I think that you shouldn't turn away someone because they probably have it."
And now the Romero family is circulating a petition to demand that persons "who probably have it" are tested and not turned away.
Shumari Romero told us how you can help:
Shumari Romero, Daughter
"The petition is geared towards everyone demanding better from the government of Belize and the ministry of health, so that they could change the current protocol, because right now they are just testing people if they have been in contact with someone who is positive. That will not help the situation. Right now we need people to know and a lot of times they tell us wear your mask, do you part and so what we want to demand from them is for them to do their part. The best way we saw fit was us to do this petition especially for the high risk people. Are the asking the pertinent question if the people are elderly, if they have underlying symptoms, or are they just going oh well what's your social, go to the clinic, check you up - what are they doing exactly?"
You can find a link to the online petition at 7newsbelize.com or on our 7newsbelize facebook page. http://chng.it/SKpWztbn
Shumari Romero also told us a little about her father, who proudly wore his patriotism across his broad chest:
Shumari Romero, Daughter
"He was a very kind and loving man. Everyone knew him as that. He was patriotic, he was in the 2005 riots and we were trying so hard to find the pictures of him where he was throwing a rock at the assembly building, as well as he was very vocal about the Guatemala/Belize dispute and then he loved his Belizean artists. He loved music and every party, everything he would be just happy with playing music. He was our DJ in terms of selecting the songs. I just want everyone not to remember him as a statistic, but just remember that this is our movement for change. We want the change for everyone and it's a betterment for Belize."
According to Shumari, her brother Luis Romero Jr, her brother is on oxygen and is showing signs of improvement.
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