American Nationals Also in Mandatory Quarantine

Fifteen persons were on the manifest of the United Airlines flight that landed at the Philip Goldson International Airport on June twelfth. Among them were twelve repatriated Belizeans; the other three included a diplomat and two American nationals, who are relatives of Robert Hurley, the sixty-year-old man who was killed on his farm in San Ignacio last Tuesday. Hurley’s relatives are here to settle his estate and to deal with burial procedures. Diplomats are allowed to self-quarantine at the embassy in Belmopan, but what about the Hurleys? Doctor Marvin Manzanero says that even though they tested negative for COVID-19, they too must undergo mandatory quarantine.

Marvin Manzanero

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“The diplomat, he is quarantined at the U.S. Embassy. He is not in a hotel and that’s part of an agreement between governments and I believe that there’s specific protocols that guide what you can do, basically international law. The other two North American nationals are in quarantine just as the Belizeans.”

Hipolito Novelo

“In terms of the diplomats, is security there? Is he monitored? Checks in every day? How does that work?”

Dr. Marvin Manzanero

“They have their own nursing facility. Once we found out there was a positive sample in the group, that information is relayed to them so that they can take the precaution that they may deem necessary with the team that they have on the ground. But they have a nurse there and they have, as I understand it, some basic lab equipment that they are able to run some basic tests.”