Primary School Teacher Contracts COVID-19

Following an outbreak in cases of the coronavirus, schools around the country were ordered to remain closed as a containment measure.  So instead of being in the classrooms today, the students were at home.  In a Belize City school, however, where preparations were underway for the scheduled reopening, a teacher tested positive for the virus. Vanessa Gladden confirmed her status on Facebook and contact tracing is ongoing. Here is News Five’s Isani Cayetano with a report. 

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Today was the initially scheduled start of the 2020 academic calendar.  Across the country, schools were already being prepared for classrooms to receive new cohorts of students.  This morning, windows and doors remained shut and school grounds were bereft of that “first day of school” aura that would have been August tenth.  It will stay that way indefinitely, until the ministries of health and education are satisfied that it is safe for students and teachers to return to their respective classrooms.  A recent flare-up of COVID-19 cases in certain parts of the country has forced government to postpone the reopening of schools until further notice.

At All Saints School, a lower division teacher has tested positive for coronavirus and a contact tracing exercise has since commenced to determine the number of persons, if any, who came within physical distance of her.  In a social media post by Vanessa Gladden, the infected educator says that her diagnosis came as a complete surprise since, admittedly, she is a proponent of mask wearing, social distancing and proper hygiene.  So how did she contract the disease and how many persons were exposed to the illness by Gladden?

In a release issued by the Diocesan Education Board, an arm of the Anglican Diocese of Belize, on Saturday, the management of All Saints School has reached out to teachers who may have shared the same space with Gladden anywhere between August third and fifth.  According to the board, her colleagues have given all assurances that strict procedures were followed during their time at school last week.  The Ministry of Health is yet to make that determination based on an actual mapping exercise.

For her part, Gladden describes her symptoms as often unbearable, saying, quote, I am trying my best to keep calm and carry through with my treatment, unquote.  Elsewhere, she also speaks to the stigma associated with COVID-19, a sign of social unacceptability where the deadly pandemic is concerned.  As far as All Saints School, Principal Colin Estrada, we understand, has declined comment; nonetheless, arrangements are underway to sanitize the school.  The decision by government not to reopen schools today preceded this new case; however, it underscores the need for the involvement of all stakeholders.