Belize Remains with Only One Confirmed COVID-19 Case
The Ministry of Health has concluded its first preliminary exercise on San Pedro related to the positive COVID-19 case. According to Director of Health Services Doctor Marvin Manzanero, some thirty-four San Pedro residents have been tested for the COVID-19 disease. The results of the tests are expected on Wednesday and so far, Belize remains with only one confirmed case of COVID-19. Sixty-four persons have been mapped; they are believed to have come in close contact with the thirty-eight-year-old woman who contracted the virus. Information suggests that the individual arrived in Belize on a United Airlines flight and proceeded to San Pedro on a Maya Island Air plane. During today’s session of Ask the Experts, Doctor Manzanero provided an update on the mapping exercise.
Marvin Manzanero
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services
“The first preliminary exercise in San Pedro in terms of the mapping has happened. I know that the immediate contact of the person who the index case are going to be swabbed and those samples are going to be brought back today for testing. We have done so far outside to the San Pedro case sixty four total tests. We have one positive, the one we announced yesterday. In terms of the case that we initially reported, we got a call from the US we got the note from the international health regulation focal point in the US to indicate that they had not been able to traced any person who had positive after leaving Belize. It was a rumor surveillance, accordingly. The people who did get swabbed from that rumor surveillance got their results yesterday. They were all negative for COVID-19. The samples are already on their way. As I am being told on a private boat. The initial mapping has started. What that does is that you identify the cases, the persons who were on direct contact, where they were. We have an initial set of names, of course those names are not released. What we do is we contact them directly and find out the level of interaction, determine whether they need to be swabbed or not. That line distancing will also have the current health status of the person. The team will call you every day until that has been determine if you were at risk or need to be swabbed or not.”
