Suspect Cases at Dorothy Menzies Childcare Centre Test Negative
A fear of spread has been dispelled at a child care facility in Belize City. News Five has confirmed that eight resident minors at the Dorothy Menzies Childcare Centre have tested negative for COVID-19. Last week, a teenage girl at the centre tested positive for the novel coronavirus and there were mounting concerns that other minors may have contracted the virus after they began exhibiting symptoms similar to that of COVID-19. They were placed in an isolation area at the facility immediately. As we found out today, they remain isolated and the positive patient is to be re-swabbed later this week to determine if she has recovered from COVID-19.
Elswith Chevez
Elswith Chevez, Acting Director, Human Services Department [File: August 21st, 2020]
“The entire quarantine and isolation area is completely locked off so the only ones that have access to that area are the caregivers. Earlier in this year, the ministry staff as well as the institution’s were trained on how to work along with the pandemic. They were taught how to use the P.P.E.’s because that is something new to us. So they have a lot of knowledge of what they are supposed to do. That isolation area was identified by the Ministry of Health. Earlier this year, we took them around and they designated that area in the event that this would happen at the institution. If you ever visited the institution, it is the ground floor. That is a wide space. Like I said, the public health officials identified that because of the ventilation—it has proper ventilation—so several residents can do that social distancing while they are there in quarantine and isolation area. So while that may be of concern, they are properly in that space that they should be to cause any further contraction of the virus.”
