Third Flight Arrives with Belizean Repatriates
Belizeans trapped overseas are returning home in a trickle via the ongoing repatriation exercise being led by the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Health and National Security. This afternoon, a United Airlines flight arrived at the Philip Goldson International Airport with forty-five passengers onboard, a majority of whom are Belizean citizens. The P.G.I.A. remains closed indefinitely; however, accommodations were made to facilitate the arrival of the aircraft which also carried onboard a team of British soldiers. While the media was kept at bay, a commuter bus was brought in to transport the passengers to Belize City where they are being held in mandatory quarantine at the Princess Hotel. According to Director of Health Services, Dr. Marvin Manzanero, everyone that came in on the flight was swabbed and the individual tests for COVID-19 will be conducted on June twenty-third.
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services
“This is the third repatriated flight that has arrived since we started the process. I had on the list forty-five people that would have arrived. Not all of them are Belizeans, a couple, I believe, might be military, British military and, I believe, a diplomat.”
Isani Cayetano
“The specific protocols that were observed at the airport, can you perhaps shed some light or share some details as to what those procedures are in terms of ensuring that these individuals were thoroughly checked out?”
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
Dr. Marvin Manzanero
“You see it’s not a complicated process because all of these persons are asymptomatic and if any of these persons are symptomatic upon arrival then they would have to go through a different screening process. But the risk is minimal, even if you go through having customs, immigration and check everything that you need to check, even if you are reactive and everybody’s wearing a mask and keeping the social distance, keeping the contact to a minimum then that shouldn’t be a problem. That’s precisely why filling in a repatriation form prior to arrival should make the process much smoother because you already know the amount of people you are going to expect and you already have all the passport details of the persons. So when they come in it’s not a complicated process, we are swabbing everybody upon arrival and this is the biggest group of people we have had since we started this process. Even though the samples are taken throughout the day today, upon arrival, we are not going to process them until Tuesday of next week, and remember, that’s just a control.”
