Lee Mark Chang Tests Positive for COVID-19
Well-known restaurateur and former Senate President Lee Mark Chang has tested positive for COVID-19 and remains in quarantine at his residence here in Belize City. The businessman received a phone call from health officials late Saturday night informing him that the test that he had taken last Wednesday confirmed that he is afflicted with the disease. According to the Caribbean Shores U.D.P. standard bearer, he may have contracted coronavirus after lending his cell phone to a close associate. Chang says that notwithstanding the precautionary measures that he had been following, a simple err in judgment has resulted in him acquiring COVID-19. His restaurant, Chon Saan Palace, has since been closed for business pending a thorough sanitization exercise.
Lee Mark Chang, COVID-19 Victim
“I got a phone call stating I was COVID positive. I was already in isolation from the week before because I had sore throat and runny eyes, so I decided to self-quarantine early and self-isolate. Now after I got the positive news, I have to now be in quarantine.”
Isani Cayetano
“What symptoms are you showing at present and perhaps one of the most important questions would be whether you were in contact with other employees at Chon Saan Palace at any point before this confirmation.”
Lee Mark Chang
Lee Mark Chang
“During the past couple weeks, I have had very minimal contact with the staff at Chon Saan. I just go in and I do what I have to do and then usually I go to my meetings and stuff like that. Of course I have already informed the DHS of the entire list of names of staff and everybody and they are doing their contact tracing and stuff like that as we speak. I also need to make note that of course as of today, my managers have made appointments for a company to come in and sanitize the entire restaurant. COVID has no race, no color, no status or anything. All I want to do is to encourage everybody to social distance, keep on their face mask, sanitize your hands and treat everybody like they have it. I have been one the persons that has been very, very, very careful throughout these entire months and it just so happens that sometimes one little slip up and you don’t even know where you get it from. I have my suspicions, but I cannot confirm it. What happened is, and I probably need to make note with other people for them to also be careful, is for them to not lend out your phone or at least make someone use your phone because once you lend out the phone you don’t know where that person has been or touched and so you could easily transmit it through the phone if you didn’t sanitize it right away. I believe this situation with me was that I loaned someone my phone, just a quick phone call and I guess that’s where I am right now.”
In other COVID-related news from the restaurant and hospitality sector, the Riverside Tavern is also closed for business after one of its employees tested positive for the disease on Friday. In a release issued earlier today, the R&B Group, parent company of the popular restaurant and bar, says that the location has been shuttered pending a deep-cleaning, while the Ministry of Health does its contact tracing. The Riverside Tavern is set to reopen later this week.
