23 New COVID-19 Cases as of August 10th; 9 Healthcare Workers Now Infected
The news is grim tonight in respect of the COVID-19 situation in Belize. There are over one hundred and sixty samples being processed at the Central Lab and later tonight, those results will be released and are expected to spike the number further. But what we know up to news time is that there are one hundred and seventy-seven confirmed COVID-19 cases in total after twenty-three new cases were identified. The new patients include five in Belize City and eleven in San Pedro, with the other patients sprinkled across other communities. The latest numbers include two healthcare workers from a private facility in Belmopan, which brings the number of healthcare workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 to nine. Before news time, we spoke with Director of Health Services Doctor Marvin Manzanero, who notes the growing number of healthcare personnel who are COVID-19 positive.
Marvin Manzanero
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services
“We are still dissecting some of the information. What the team tries to do is that we still try to see if there is any possibility to link the cases as we move along. Some are easier to do than others. For example, the cases that are in Belmopan; two are related to the physician that has been previously diagnosed at a medical facility in Belmopan and I believe that entity has already gone public to issue a press release to make it known who those persons are; it’s a pharmacist and a lab tech. So, we are also keeping tally of healthcare workers and now it is nine healthcare workers who are positive which is a significant number because they are not necessarily all in a hospital setting and six of those have been in private sector now. So, those are easy. The other third person in Belmopan has a link to San Pedro. The other situation there that we need to clarify is that one of the persons who is from Belmopan, what the infographics will give you is where you were actually swabbed. So, for example, the first from that cluster was swabbed in Belmopan but he lives in Belize City. So, the contact tracing for the most part will be in Belize City and Belmopan. One of the persons who is positive in Belmopan lives in Benque, for example, so he commutes daily to Benque. One person in rural Corozal came up yesterday and a couple in Orange Walk and a couple in Belize City.”
