Elderly Visitor Says She was Duped at P.G.I.A.

Seventy-one-year-old Gwen Jackson, a Belizean-American visitor, arrived at the P.G.I.A. this morning where she was required to present a negative COVID-19 test result.  Believing that the document she presented to local health officials was valid, the New Yorker grew livid when she was asked to take another test which she had to pay for.  As it turned out, Jackson brought along with her the results of a rapid test.  According to the elderly woman, she was only swabbed in one nostril before being allowed to leave without the test result.  She believes she was duped out of her money.

Gwen Jackson

Gwen Jackson, Belize/American Visitor

“I had my COVID paper, less than seventy-two hours, and a so-called doctor, I don’t know who he was, tells me that this expired and it was eleven o’clock in the morning.  Seventy-two hours supposed to be midnight on Wednesday and he directed me to go to someone to get a swab and to pay a hundred dollars to go and take a test.  When I went to the test they did one nose and directed me to go to someone else to stamp my paper that I filled out on the plane and from that [point] onward they told me to go home, go and pick up my [luggage], go to the immigration and go home.  And up to now, I’ve left the airport, I paid a hundred dollars and don’t even know the result of the test.  So I said I have to do something because I have a feeling that they’ve been doing this to many, many people but not everyone has the nerve to show up to explain what really happened to them, they go along with it.”

This evening, News Five spoke with Doctor Melissa Diaz-Musa, Deputy Regional Health Manager at the Central Health Region.  She reminds visitors that rapid tests are valid for forty-eight hours only, while PCR test results are valid for seventy-two hours.