Frontline workers continue to be disproportionally affected by COVID infections, and tonight it is hitting home for the western health region. 7News has been reliably informed that a Doctor from that region is tonight intubated at the KHMH. He is a male in his 40's. Reports say he was brought in from San Ignacio earlier today. We'll keep following this story.

NASA Scientist: From Kelly Street to Future Fairy Tale

He's an Earth Observer with NASA who's recently had a hand in taking Belize's barrier reef off of UNESCO's list of endangered heritage sites. That's a move in the right direction proving that when it comes to conservation awareness, the government is keeping its promises.

But Emil Cherrington started out as just another civil servant right here in Belize. Cherisse Halsall spoke to him via zoom today for an update on his latest projects and a dose of inspiration.

Cherrington is one of at least two Belizean NASA employees, the other being Kenneth Hunt who works in the space Station facility where astronauts are trained.

CPI Showed Marginal Increase in July

Institute of Belize. You saw the experts discussion that GDP contraction and the import/export picture. But, they also presented on the Consumer Price Index for July. That's the statistic used to indicate how prices for a basket of goods go up or down over time.

And, for this July, the Belizean food basket went up by...point 1 percent (.1%). It's not much at all and here's why:

Daysi Montero - Statistician II

"The inflation for the month of July 2020, stood at 0.1%, meaning over because of regular purchased goods and services went up by 0.1%, in comparison to July 2019. We'll have a closer look at what contributed to the inflation rate of 0.1%. These are housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels category which increased by 0.7%. The fool and non alcoholic beverage category which went up by 1%. The transport category was the only that fell by a decrease of 2.1%, however I must mention that this was the major category inserting downward pressure on the overall inflation rate. The municipal level, it can clearly be seen that Orange Walk experience the highest monthly increase in consumer prices with an inflation rate of 1.3%. Consumers in this town saw above average increase in prices for food items, men and children footwear, telephones and maintenance and repair of motor vehicles. Mexico reported the highest inflation rate in the region with prices going up by 3.6% followed by Honduras with a price increase of 3.1%. Guatemala has an increase of 2.9%. El Salvador and Costa Rica both have price decreases with price going down by 0.1% and 0.2% perceptively."

And while the overall change was just point 1 percent (.1%), prices for food and alcoholic beverages went up by a full 1% in July. Here's why:

Daysi Montero

"This was due to higher prices for food items such as ground beef, whole chicken, natural milk, red kidney beans and eggs as well as some fresh fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, plantain and oranges. These higher prices were partially balanced by lower prices for other food items including beef steak, pig tail, pineapple, sweet pepper and watermelon."

The Basket is Obsolete

And if those very marginal year to year increases don't jive with your reality when you go to the grocery store or supermarket, it could be because the shopping cart that the SIB uses is out of date. This is supposed to be updated, but, Blame it one COVID:

Jules Vasquez

"Is there any attempt to update the shopping cart to make it perhaps more reflective of what consumers go through?"

Diana Castillo-Trejo - Director General, SIB

"We have already developed an updated basket for the consumer price index and so that has been put together and we were actually suppose to go into the field to do the first round of price collection for that basket this month and unfortunately, because of the situation for now with the increasing number of cases of COVID 19 on the ground, we were not able to go out in all the areas that we need to go out and that has been postponed tentatively for next month."