Belize Coast Guard Response to COVID-19

Gregory Soberanis

The Belize Coast Guard says that they have managed to keep the COVID-19 infection rate low among their members because they have implemented strict measures.  According to Acting Commandant Gregory Soberanis, there are only twenty-two officers who are currently COVID-19 positive.  He says that they have kept the figure at a little over twenty or so cases. It’s a stark contrast to the other two law enforcement agencies – the Belize Police Department and the Belize Defence Force – who have had hundreds of officers off duty as a result of the virus.  Soberanis says that they acted quickly when they saw the numbers increase earlier this year.  A key part of their response was to get help from the Ministry of Health and mobilize their medic team and step up COVID-19 control measures on their bases.

Commander Gregory Soberanis, Acting Commandant, Belize Coast Guard

“We brought in the Ministry of Health and they were able to assess the spaces that we use here. The office spaces, the berthing spaces for the men that remain here to execute their duties and they were able to provide very good recommendations on how to move forward in conditions that would mitigate the spread of the disease. Currently, we have twenty-two positive cases and we have five that are pending currently. So, we have been able to keep the number just above twenty and we have been able to manage it at that level. Thus far, the impact has not been significant on our operations because of stringent measures that we put in place as it relates to the footprint that we have here on base and the constant sanitization of the spaces that we have here. So, measures like those have assisted tremendously in mitigating the number of cases that we have here in the coast guard.”