Opposition Leader Calls Out M.O.H. for Mismanaging COVID-19 Crisis

Opposition Leader John Briceño on Tuesday blasted the Barrow Administration, saying that the Ministry of Health is scrambling for solutions as COVID-19 cases are on the rise.  A P.U.P. release read, “With the first week of the spike in cases, our health monitoring system has for all intents and purposes collapsed.” Briceño pointed out that the government is unable to  muster the resources to continue adequate contact tracing and that health facilities have been overwhelmed by persons asking to be tested while the ministry frantically scrambles to provide P.P.E.s to frontline health personnel.  Today, the Opposition Leader said that the ministry had six months to prepare for the second wave.

John Briceño

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition

“The Ministry of Health has had six months to be able to put all the things that we have been asking to put in place and it still hasn’t done so. One of the most important things is that we have the private doctors and private clinics to this day do not know how they can participate or how they can help. They understand that the Karl Heusner or the regional hospital can be overrun within a day because there are limited facility or ventilators. They have been offering to participate. When I was a member of the National Oversight Committee I brought it up several times and they said they are going to be doing it but it has not been done. We have a crisis in San Pedro as we speak. I have spoken with the frontline workers in San Pedro and they are crying out for help. Do you realize that the tests that were done on Friday they are not being brought to Belize until today simply because they don’t have money to pay for the fuel, not even to hire a boat but to pay for a fuel. Do you realize that the care centre that was set up by the citizens of San Pedro that they don’t have a budget to pay for the electricity and water. The electricity has been cut at least two times. There is no quarantine facility in San Pedro right now. The numbers are raging in San Pedro and they cannot take them to the polyclinic and they have been asking the department at the Ministry of Health that they need to find a place where they could quarantine people with the virus in San Pedro. Housing in San Pedro is a huge problem where a lot of people live in small quarters and they cannot self quarantine in their homes. These are some of the issues that need to be addressed head on and I believe that the government has lost six months to put these things in place.”