M.O.H. Working with Banana Farms to Contain COVID-19

Marvin Manzanero

As you heard a short while ago, the Ministry of Health is concerned about the growing COVID-19 cases in southern Belize, particularly as it relates to the banana farms.  As a part of its containment measures, the ministry was able to get its southern team out to the farms today. Here’s what Doctor Manzanero knows so far about that situation.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“There is a team that went there from Southern Health Region. We were going to send a team from here but because of the weather we were advised that it may not be a good thing for the entire headquarters team to go. So, Southern Health Region was going to meet there with the banana farm owners to determine what mechanisms can be done to try to contain it; do sweeps also in terms of testing because we do have outbreaks in a couple of farms that have already been clearly identified. Because what you want to do is to contain and then to also minimize the amount of patients requiring health services. So, we want to be able to identify them early. My understanding from the preliminary notes that the regional manager has sent is that there has been changes in terms of the condition in which people are there, so I believe that there is a willingness from the owners to move ahead to try to contain this.”