Only 21 Active COVID-19 Cases in Corozal

The country is in its third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as the number of positive cases continues to rise. As of Wednesday, there are now four hundred and thirty-two active cases, three hundred and thirty-eight COVID-related deaths have been recorded and there are ten active hospitalizations.  But of those active cases, only twenty-one are registered in for Corozal District. The Medical Chief of Staff at the Corozal Community Hospital says this low number is because of the high number of vaccinated persons. But because they are vaccinated, residents are likely asymptomatic and not in need of medical care. Doctor Angela Gilharry told News Five today this has created challenges for the hospital’s surveillance exercise. 

Angela Gilharry

Dr. Angela Gilharry, Medical Chief of Staff, Corozal Community Hospital

“Corozal is not at the leading point right now. One of the problems that we are having in Corozal that is making it a little bit difficult to get a good grip on the COVID-19 status is that we are one of the regions with the highest coverage for vaccination, which is good. The problem is that a lot of these positive cases that we are getting, they are completely asymptomatic because of the vaccine. In one aspect, we are glad because even though we do have an increase in the number of COVID cases, it is not reflecting in our in-patient census at the COVID unit. For example, right now we only have two patients and they are not COVID patients; they are still under the persons under investigation category because we are awaiting PCR results. And more than likely clinically, it doesn’t seem that it is COVID, but we have to treat as such until proven otherwise. In terms of surveillance, it is making it a little difficult because people genuinely don’t know that they have COVID and it is just that by some sort of random testing or being part of a contact tracing that we would detect them.”