Email

Print

They make up almost a quarters of active cases - yet Dr. Manzanero continues to insist that - in the case of the medical professionals - they likely did not contract COVID on the job. He discussed the front-line infections today:

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, DHS
"We have up to date, 13 health care workers in private sector that have tested positive since the beginning of our pandemic for the health care workers in the public sector and we have had close two facilities close in Belize City as of I believe yesterday because we had 2 or 3 of their staff positive and one section of a hospital in Belize City has been closed as well because we are following a potential outbreak in that facility. These are all from private sector facilities. We also know that two staff members from Karl Heusner tested positive yesterday. It does not seem that in both cases they were infected at work or at least not at Karl Heusner. The situation we are following that just came through yesterday. We also make note that to date we have had 7 coast guards who have tested positive, 62 police officers and 67 soldiers, out of these soldiers you would know that we had o an outbreak about two weeks ago in Orange Walk. We have now detected cases at Fairweather camp in PG and we have a team going to Central Farm or should be there by now because we have identified 17 cases at Belizario camp so we are doing a complete sweep today. I would tell you that in terms of health care workers I would say 80-85 percent of those have been infected outside of the workplace so we do try to give protection within the work environment but we continue to stress with them protection should not only be in the workplace but whenever we go about doing our own personal activities."

Private Labs Can Now Test For Virus

And while government's medical lab technologists -do not get the bonus pay awarded to frontline workers - they are a crucial part of the testing process.

Now, their load might be shared somewhat with private facilities - since, finally, private labs will be allowed to run approved types of COVID tests:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Private medical facilities will be allowed to conduct COVID19 tests but using only the types of brands of tests approved by the ministry of health and they must adhere to the protocols and guidelines set by the ministry. They will have to of course report their test results to the ministry of health."

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, DHS
"One facility is in Belmopan, they just sent their paperwork yesterday and another facility is in Belize City."

COVAX Coming To Rescue

And, finally on COVID tonight, when a vaccine for the virus is approved, Belize is in line to get 120,000 doses - that's three times the number of regular flu shots we use annually.

It's through an initiative called COVAX - which will allow 12 Caribbean countries in the first phase, to receive a number of doses that is equivalent to 20% of their population.

The PM and the DHS discussed it:

Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"We have already signed up through WHO so that we can be a part of the queue when the vaccine does become available and WHO and PAHO argue and campaign and advocate for our region to get a fair share of that particular resource."

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, DHS
"Belize has already made the down payment it's $382,080 that is USD and there is a pending payment of $2.1 million US dollars that would be payable whenever the vaccines are available, this is to cover 30 percent of the population in Belize."

A release from PAHO says the first set of vaccines will be targeted for health care workers, frontline workers, and those most-at-risk such as people with 65 years and more and adults with underlying conditions.

Carinosa Cocaine Dealer

On Wednesday, we told you about Albert Requena, the 31-year-old from Belize City, who was busted on Caye Caulker over the weekend with a little over 1.2 kilos of cocaine and a 8 stats of cash . Tonight, he is on remand at the Belize Central Prison after being taken to Magistrate's Court today.

Requena was arraigned before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford on the offense of possession of a controlled drug with the intent to supply. Requena pled not guilty, but due to the quantity of the drugs he's being accused of, he couldn't be granted bail.

Still, his attorney, Leeroy Banner, attempted to convince the sitting magistrate that he should get bail. He told the court that Caye Caulker police took him into custody since last week Friday. He contended that the cops should have brought him for arraignment by Tuesday at the latest, but instead, they kept him in their custody until today. He also asserted that instructions were given for Requena to be released from detention yesterday since the police hadn't charged him for the cocaine.

We understand that the cops initially charged him for failing to wear a face mask while in public, because when he was busted, he allegedly didn't have one. He was arraigned on Tuesday for that offense, and he was able to meet bail. He would have been free to go, except police picked him right back up, and prepared the drug trafficking charge against him.

After consideration, Senior Magistrate Ford did not agree with his attorney's submissions, and she remanded him to prison until December 17th. He can now apply to the Supreme Court for bail.

Fuel Tank Topped Up with Weed

Smugglers find all kinds of ways to move marijuana from Mexico to the city - and police say that Thomas Williams BERMUDEZ tried to put it in his gas tank!

Last night at 10:30 police stopped the Los Lagos resident driving a white Freightliner flatbed truck at a checkpoint in Carmelita Village, in front of the Toll Bridge.

The cops searched a disconnected fuel tank that was mounted under the driver's side of the truck and found a secret compartment containing (22) parcels of suspected cannabis weighing in at 25 pounds.

Williams BERMUDEZ was arrested and charged for the offense of Possession of Controlled Drugs with Intent to Supply.

Brick City Had Bricks!

And in one more tale of alleged drug trafficking...

Winston Michael Harris, he's known as the popular radio personality "Brick City", but he's in trouble with police for allegedly being in possession of 2.1 kilos of marijuana.

On Tuesday morning at 11:00, the GSU raided at his home, on Balan Street in Belize City. They were acting on intelligence, and when they arrived, they met Harris and Tanya Thompson. They were both informed of the police's intent to search their home for illegal items. The cops found a small amount of weed inside the house, and Harris told them that it was for his personal use.

The officers then searched his vehicle, which both he and Thompson had access to. That search led the cops to 3 parcels of marijuana. The weed weighed in at a total of just over 4.6 pounds.

Both Harris and Thompson were arrested and charged with 2 counts of possession of a controlled drug with the intent to supply. His vehicle has been impounded.

UDP's Virtual Manifesto

It's T-minus 26 days until the election day, and that means that political parties have presented their manifesto's. And whole a copy of either plan may have been dropped off on your doorstep the average voter isn't likely to read the whole thing. And last night, in an effort to highlight the best of their plan the UDP held a virtual manifesto Launch. Here are some highlights.

US Embassy On the Southside

This evening, the US Embassy in Belmopan teamed up with the Love Foundation and the Kolbe Foundation to formally launch an initiative for 3 neighborhoods in Belize City's Southside. It is called "Empowering Community to Empower Themselves", and the idea behind it is to establish a resource hub in the communities of Yarborough, Lake Independence, and George Street, which have been traumatized by the years of sustained gang violence and criminal activity.

The hubs are intended to be centers where entrepreneurial and vocational training will take place, to provide at-risk youths with a real alternative to over the gang life. And, the interesting element of the program is that former gang members, who want to make a positive change, are the ones leading these community hubs by example.

The organizers invited the press to Caesar Ridge Road, where the first hub was opened, and that one is called Life Skills Multipurpose Group.

7News stopped by, and we got a chance to meet the former gang members who want to see Caesar Ridge Road become a place of business, rather than badness:

Keith Gilges - Charge d'affaires, US Embassy
In the Southside of Belize City, gangs have infiltrated so deeply into many communities, that they've become a major obstacle to virtually any prospect for economic development. You know, it's tragic that neighborhoods with fascinating histories like Yarborough, Lake Independence, and George Street have now become infamous for their gang-related crime and violence. So, we welcome the opportunity to focus our initiative on these 3 neighborhoods, these 3 under-served communities. The project we're launching today, as I said, Empowering Communities to Empower Themselves, is fundamental because the project is exactly what the name says it is. Over the course of the next 5 months, we'll create 3 community resource hubs in these neighborhoods. And these hubs will provide not only a place where former gang members can find a fresh start but also, they serve as a beacon for other individuals still trapped in the gang lifestyle that may be looking for a way out.

Deborah Sewell - Managing Director, Love Foundation
JD, Bo, Dwayne, Kevin, Ian, and the rest of you, I'm so proud to know you guys. This project is about restorative justice. These guys are aware of the damage and harm their previous actions have caused to their community, and are working diligently to bring back the vitality to this community. I would like to thank the US Embassy for your partnership yet again in another project, which will create economic prosperity in 3 marginalized communities, by transforming vacant, abandon lot into spaces to feed, educate and engage the community.

Francis Woods - Representative, Kolbe Foundation
We hope that this project will do two things for the Kolbe Foundation, 1, reduce the number of men coming in because a lot of these men go in there because they never had a solid program they could have gone to develop their dreams. And what's unique about this program is that there are a lot of people behind it. One of the second things we'd like to see is that when men come out of prison - and women - they can come back into a community. We can do a lot of good work at the prison, but if they come back into an environment that's not healthy, they will fall back down. It makes it easy for them to fall back down. So, we hope that the second component is that when they come out of prison, they can come into a situation like this, come to one of these establishments, these community areas, and have a chance to do something, to where they can do something for themselves.

Dwayne Saldano - Rep., Life Skills Multipurpose Group
Listen what's going on. We will make a positive impact. And then, we won't just make a positive impact. We will open opportunities to other at-risk young persons, who are in the community. We've already been through it. We have already been through the school of hard knocks. We already know about prison. We know that life. We know that that life isn't good. We don't want that for our community, and the younger ones who look up to us. We don't want that, because that is negative. We want to go into the positive.

2 more hubs will be opened in Lake Independence and George Street in the near future.

School Situation Dismal

And, finally tonight, we've been telling you about the relaxation of the quarantine regulations to make Belize more attractive to tourists as a destination.

And while that's big business, nobody's talking about school! It's not an exaggeration to say that if some drastic intervention isn't made soon - we risk losing a generation to an impaired education. And then, who will run and staff and those tourist resorts?

It may sound dramatic, but it's real talk: Belize's children are losing with distance learning - and the kids who need it the most, are losing the most.

Today, we asked the Prime Minister when schools will re-open:

Prison-Pop!

And - after a heavy news day - and a very heavy week - we close tonight on a lighter note….but it comes right from the prison - a place that hasn't been very bright this week.

This morning prisoners at the Tango 7 put together a freestyle about the Coronavirus and confinement.

It's a neat twist, since all the uproar at the prison in the last 5 days, including a break out and a riot - which led to the death of two inmates - started with prisoners being unhappy about a full lockdown to contain the coronavirus.

And that riot happened right at the Tango 7 building...

Well, this morning - the mood must have been a little different because they were rapping about the virus - with a bucket as the beatbox.

We close with that interesting track tonight - after we put a few pictures on it..

Enjoy, and join Indira Craig back here on Monday...

Goodnight and have a great weekend, I'm Cherisse Halsall.