BMDA Recommends Earlier Start to Curfew

The Belize Medical and Dental Association has come forward with some strong recommendations for actions they want the government to take in response to the presence of the Delta variant and the rising number of COVID cases in Belize.  These begin with a change in the curfew which they want to start at seven p.m. instead of nine, as it currently stands. President of the B.M.D.A., Doctor Uldine Wright told News Five this evening that the association’s members are of the view that decreasing the number of free hours that people have to socialize after they leave work in the evening will help to also lower the rate of transmissibility of COVID and its variants that are spreading in Belize.

Uldine Wright

Dr. Uldine Wright, President, B.M.D.A.

“Over the past few days we’ve seen an increase in the numbers of positives in our daily testing and we see that day before yesterday it was announced that the Delta variant is identified in Belize. Our last report yesterday showed that we had ninety-five persons testing positive. However, we do not know what percentage of those persons have the Delta variant.  We’ve seen in other countries that once the Delta variant is introduced in the population because of it being so contagious – it’s two times more contagious than the previous variants – it takes over. It becomes the dominant variant of the population.  We have seen this in both England and Israel. However, the cases of hospitalization and death were not as high as in previous variants because by the time this was introduced to these populations, they had already had a large percentage of their population vaccinated. However, in the States we see how contagious this variant is and the number of hospitalizations that it brings. It has become – COVID-19 virus has become of great concern to the unvaccinated. However, we also know that even the vaccinated persons can become infected with the Delta variant and can still transmit it but not transmit it as long as the persons who are vaccinated. So although they get an increase in viral load as the unvaccinated, they would not have it for so long and therefore, not be spreading it. So we see right now with the cases on the rise and the new variant, we believe if we enforced these restrictions right now, we can contain the virus until a larger percentage of our population is vaccinated.”