Belize’s First COVID-19 Patient May Have Committed an Offence

Michael Peyrefitte

The first COVID-19 case was imported; it involves a thirty-eight-year-old woman who entered the country after leaving Los Angeles last week Thursday.  The Belizean woman was expected to self isolate but after landing on the island, she made some errands and visited her mother who was confirmed to be the second case of COVID-19. The government’s attorneys are looking into the law books to determine if there are provisions whereby the woman can be legally charged for not adhering to the self-isolation rules.

Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General

“There is a general law in the Quarantine Act and we are certainly looking into that. We have to determine and we believe that she was warned upon arriving at the airport in Belize to immediately inform the Ministry of Health and to immediately self isolate. By failing to do that she may have committed an offence. We are currently looking at that as we speak and I am telling you if the evidence lines up of committing that offence we will definitely charge her with that offence.”