A Snapshot of Belize’s COVID Situation, One Month Later

The number of new cases of COVID-19 in Belize appears to be on the decline. Today the Ministry of Health reported twenty-seven new cases and three new deaths, and a total of four hundred and forty-five active cases. And while those are promising numbers, Belizeans are growing weary of restrictions that remain in place. Prime Minister John Briceño today summarized the efforts this administration has taken to curb the virus’s spread. As for the restriction of movement after eight o’clock, the P.M. says we must hold on just a little bit longer.

John Briceño, Prime Minister

John Briceño

“Well I think what was very important is that for us as a new government to ensure that everyone was onboard when it comes to fighting COVID and to try to flatten the curve and control the spread.  When we got into government, before we got into government in October, the infection rate was over five thousand.  Now we’ve managed to bring in two months time to about five hundred.  But that was done because we had a plan, we said that we were going to follow the science and that we were going to follow what the doctors and the professionals tell us, not the politicians.  So what the Minister of Health and Wellness, Minister Chebat, did was he set up a whole team of doctors and nurses that work not only within the government system but also the private doctors from the private clinics, as well.  What we said all along is that all of us are in this thing together, so we brought in the private doctors, the private clinics, the private labs, everybody onboard to be able to fight to control COVID.  But secondly, we realized that you can’t be putting up an SI today and then two weeks later that’s finished and then you bring it up.  You have this sort of uncertainty.  So what we did, the SI that we set up is almost open-ended. If we wanted to just say okay, declare victory, we could have already lifted the curfew and say, “Okay, we done win.”  But it is not about political victory, it is about protecting the lives of our citizens and so we felt that we need to hold it up a little bit longer so that whenever we remove the restrictions it’s not going to flare up again, you know, one month later or a few weeks later.”