Containing Spread of COVID-19 in Schools

Francis Fonseca

In attempting to assuage the fears of parents and students, the Minister of Education points out that of the three hundred and fifty-two schools that have since reopened across the country, only two schools in Belize City have been directly affected by the COVID outbreak at the Princess Casino.  According to Fonseca, once the established protocols are strictly adhered to, the chances of an outbreak in schools will be reduced considerably.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“What’s important for the parents and the public to understand is that these are two schools in Belize City out of three hundred and fifty-two schools that have been given the green light for face to face, the return to face to face instructions.  So that’s, you know, we need to manage that situation and make sure that everything is properly done.  But I can tell you that in other schools that have been given the green light, there have been cases where there have been suspected cases where people have high fever and that sort of thing and the correct procedure has been followed and at the end, thankfully, it has turned out not to be anything more than a regular flu or so.  And so there has not been any positive cases of COVID.  But as long as we adhere to the protocols that have been put in place and agreed upon between the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and the schools, because it’s a long consultation process that led to these protocols.  As long as all of us do our part and all of us take our responsibilities very seriously we should not have any serious problems.  Of course, there will be cases here and there but we have to manage those cases, that is going to be the case for the entire country as we reopen the economy and try to get back to some level of normalcy.”