La Isla Bonita Remains on Lockdown
San Pedro, Ambergris Caye remains on lockdown tonight. La Isla Bonita was placed on quarantine on Monday for seventy-two hours after a resident of the San Pedrito Area tested positive for the deadly COVID-19 disease. But what was Belize’s top tourist destination is now a dead zone as residents stay indoors and the streets are empty. No one is permitted to enter or exit Ambergris Caye and gatherings of more than ten people at a time are not being allowed. Heightened measures are being put in place to prevent the spread of the virus which is already causing devastating effects to several chunks of Belize’s economy including the country’s big earner; tourism. Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia Junior told Reef TV on Monday that is San Pedranos don’t take the necessary measures the industry could collapse. Heredia and Mayor Daniel Guerrero spoke to Reef TV and called on island residents to remain calm and stay indoors as officials conduct the mapping exercise.
Manuel Heredia Jr.
Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism
“Let us not be upset with certain steps are taken. It is not because we want it is because it is here and if we don’t take these measures when later on we can even collapse. We don’t want to get to that extreme but let us try to be understandable. At this point the person is in isolation and I believe from the time that they found out that the person tested positive authorities put her in isolation. It is a female from the San Pedrito area. Once they put u in isolation. The medial team will map out more or less with whom she had contact, where she was going and try to find out if this thing has spread out some more and if persons have been contaminated by the virus.”
Reporter
“Have you been informed that members of her immediate family have been tested?”
Manuel Heredia Junior
“Well according to what I understand if they have done their mapping I believe that at this point there should be a number of people that have been tested. The result I cannot say at this point. Nobody knew anything until after the Prime Minister announced it which other people knew already. I found that very discouraging to me. I believe that I should have known from the very instance. At least myself and the mayor should have known and I believe that at least the clinic should have know from that time very same minutes they should have started to map the area that this person had covered.”
Daniel Guerrero, Mayor, San Pedro Town
“I learned about it when it happened. She visited the private clinic and she had mentioned that she arrived the day before at three o’clock and that she came from Houston. On the following day she did her errands and she went to the bank. She was around but then she started to feel bad, she started to feel the symptoms. That is why she went to the clinic. I want to tell also to the nation and to the island here my people it is not the end of the world but we have to make sure we listen and do what is requested.”
