37 Deportees at Central Quarantine Facility at D’Silva Camp in Mountain Pine Ridge

Last Friday, a group of thirty-seven deportees arrived at the Philip Goldson International Airport on a repatriation flight. They were processed with rapid testing, all returned negative. The deportees were then whisked off to a holding facility in the Mountain Pine Ridge area of Cayo District to the Douglas D’Silva camp which is manned by the Ministry of National Security through the Belize Defense Force. According to Doctor Marvin Manzanero, a PCR test will be conducted on the deportees at day ten.

On the Phone: Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“It has to do with what we are responsible for as a quarantine authority. So what happened is when they arrived on Friday, all of them got a rapid test, the same one that we are going to be using as of tomorrow. All of them were negative so they were all allowed to proceed on to the quarantine facility. Because of where they are coming from and being potentially high risk persons due to exposure, the agreement was that they will be swabbed at day ten with a PCR test and if that result if negative, then that will be provided so that they would have kept their quarantine and whatever other legal issues is pending with them then that is a process outside of the Ministry of Health.”