25-Year-Old Cop Tested Positive for COVID-19 after Death

Chester Williams

The Belize Police Department has recorded its first COVID-related death.  In recent months, the department has been hit hard by the pandemic which left more than one hundred officers off duty.  But tragedy struck over the weekend, when one its own, a police officer from Patchakan, Corozal died. The twenty-five-year-old officer was tested post-mortem for the virus. Commissioner Chester Williams says the officer was off duty for another medical matter. Here’s what he had to say about this death of his officer.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“As a department we offer our sincere condolences of the family of the late police constable who passed away over the weekend. He was tested post-mortem and proved to be positive for COVID-19. He worked in the Corozal area and we are also grieving with his family for his loss. I want to emphasize to people for the need to comply with the regulations. We are seeing that a number of persons are going to the hospital at a late stage of having contracted the virus. If it is you believe you have contracted the virus, do not hesitate to go to the hospital and wait for the last minute. The officer in question was on sick leave from the end of September, so he wasn’t on actual duty. And the sick leave didn’t have to do with COVID but with an injury that he sustained last year and so there is no threat to the police officers with whom he worked with in Corozal. We remain vigilant and we ask the public to work with us because when people act irresponsibly our police officers come in contact with them and that is how our police officers become infected as well.”