Belize at 99th for COVID-19 Death Rate

Marvin Manzanero

To close the news tonight, as of today there have been more than twenty four million confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, including more than eight hundred thousand deaths reported to the World Health Organization.  In Belize, rapid testing will be introduced for quicker results now that the P.G.I.A. is to open on October first.  According to Director of Health Services Doctor Marvin Manzanero, Belize’s test rate is higher to other countries in the region.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“In term of where we are with numbers we are currently ranked in the total listing of countries. We are one hundred and sixty three in the ranking of total number of cases of SARSCOV2 but when you break it down by rates Belize is at number ninety six. As the death rate in which we have based on the deaths we have per million, we are at number ninety-nine. I think we want to stressed the situation in terms of testing because we keep being told that we are not doing enough testing however reviewing the data that does not include today’s samples that Russell that just reported we have similar testing rates as Ecuador and Jamaica that have testing number than we do. And we have high testing rates than people who have similar epidemic such as hours and similar population characteristics such as Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and in our neighbours we have higher rates in Honduras and Guatemala and we almost have double the testing rate that our neighbour Mexico has.”