Omicron BA.2 Confirmed as Dominant Strain in Belize

Belize is facing a new wave of COVID-19 infections and the ministry is stepping up its surveillance efforts. As of Wednesday evening, over six hundred active COVID-19 cases were being reported.  The Ministry of Health and Wellness confirmed today that the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant is the most dominant strain in Belize at present. This was confirmed by way of a gene sequencing exercise in collaboration with Baylor University. In a release earlier today, the ministry noted that it is now increasing its surveillance measures in business and other public places in order to identify and isolate positive cases early, particularly in the Belize and Cayo Districts where the infection rates are the highest. Dr. Diaz spoke with the media via zoom earlier today.

Dr. Melissa Diaz-Musa

Dr. Melissa Diaz-Musa, Director of Public Health and Wellness, M.O.H.W.

“We do have area in country where we are seeing more positive cases. Like other waves it is very similar. The district of Belize haws the highest number of positive cases as well as the highest in regards to positivity rate a well, followed behind by Cayo. And then in the other districts, we are not seeing the positivity rates we saw in the other waves. So, we are focused primarily on the Belize District, looking at the significant number of positive cases coming out of the Belize District. The Ministry of Health and Wellness, we have now embarked on enhanced surveillance. Enhanced surveillance simply means we are not sitting down at the clinics waiting for sick people to come in. We have restarted to go back into the community, public places, whoever calls us we go in and we do what we call a sweep. We swab as many persons who would like to be swabbed. This helps us enhance surveillance which always helps us to detect cases early. If we detect cases early we isolate cases early. Of course, that helps with the containment of spread and the reduction of transmission of disease.”