Over 800 tested on World AIDS Day

The numbers are in from Friday’s National HIV Testing Day and the news is good. According to Director of the National AIDS Programme, Dr. Marvin Manzanero, over eight hundred people came out to be tested last week. Belize City saw the greatest participation with three hundred, followed by Orange Walk with one hundred and fifty. Cayo saw thirty on Friday and another seventy-five on Saturday. In San Pedro eighty persons were counted, while Corozal, Belmopan, and Dangriga each had sixty and Punta Gorda counted twenty-six. Manzanero is calling the event a success and reminds Belize City residents that in addition to its regular hours, the VCT clinic at the Cleopatra White Health Centre will also be open Saturdays on December ninth, sixteenth, and twenty-third to facilitate those wishing to be tested. The National HIV Testing Day was part of activities for the Know Your Status Campaign launched by the Ministry of Health on November twenty-ninth.