Mortality Rate for COVID-19 is Expected to Increase

Fernando Cuellar

With the healthcare system stretched to capacity, there is a real fear that with not enough spaces to accommodate COVID-19 victims, the mortality rate will continue to climb and deaths will be recorded outside of the facilities where people will be waiting to seek medical attention.

Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Internist, Belize Medical Associates

“There’s not enough space and people will start, I’ve said over two or three times today in different interviews that people will be dying in waiting rooms and parking lots and I know for a fact that we’ve had some close calls with people waiting to be admitted in the parking area and maybe even dying at home. As it relates to testing and contact tracing, I think unfortunately the Ministry of Health has not had any thoughts outside of the box, so to speak.  For example, I keep saying that testing can be done with a fourth former or a sixth former.  We can recruit three hundred people and pay them a small stipend to do testing, they don’t need to be doctors and nurses.  It’s very well that a sixth form graduate or a fourth form graduate can do this, likewise we can recruit an army of different contact tracers to have in each district and do the same so that we can isolate and fight the virus where it is.  We definitely need to be strategic in our planning in terms of shutdowns and categorically, I am not one of those who would advocate for a national shutdown.  I think people’s livelihoods need to be addressed too, I think our economy needs to get going.  We have to be surgical and precise in terms of how we plan with these localized shutdowns.”