Another Patient Recovers from COVID-19; Only 2 Active Cases Remain

The good news tonight is that there are no new cases of COVID-19 for twenty-one consecutive days.  On Sunday, another patient recovered from the virus after having twice tested negative since contracting the disease.  It is expected that the two remaining active cases will be cleared by mid-week; they are a man and a woman from the same household.  This initial cycle of the virus has been contained and the country remains at stage one, with a state of emergency still in place.  But health officials are cautioning that there should be no comfort in the zero new cases because a second or third wave cannot be ruled out. Since the virus was confirmed in Belize, it peaked at eighteen infections, inducing two deaths, but the economic toll is devastating and the unemployment lines have grown longer and longer.   Late this evening, the Director of Health Services, Doctor Marvin Manzanero explained that while this is a landmark, we are not yet out of the woods.

On the Phone: Doctor Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“We had eighteen cases as we all know, confirmed. Two patients unfortunately died which meant of the sixteen we have one more recovered and we have two that are still considered active cases. We are anticipating that these two persons will be deemed to have recovered later this week.  I think it is the Ministry of Health, but I think it is the overall collective decision that the country has taken. We never really transitioned as we had said from a phase one to a phase two in terms of the epidemic for the Belize context. But we did take measures as a country as if though we were on a stage three community ongoing transmission. So I think that was effective. As we eventually start to open up, internally at least, I think those same measures now need to take place.”