COVID Cluster Detected in Caye Caulker

Coming close on the heels of the COVID cluster from two public health facilities in the Cayo District last Friday, another cluster has been detected in Caye Caulker.  Today, the Caye Caulker Village Council put up a Facebook post in which it informed that twenty-one cases had surfaced in that community and that Coast Guard personnel and attending nurses had to transport a critically ill COVID patient from the island on Saturday afternoon. Today, Deputy Regional Health Manager at the Central Health Region, Doctor Melissa Diaz-Musa told News Five spoke about the increase in active cases in Belize District.

Melissa Diaz-Musa

Dr. Melissa Diaz-Musa, Deputy Regional Health Manager, Central Health Region

“We do a lot of testing; we have been picking up a lot of positive cases. I think that on Friday or Thursday, the report was three hundred and ninety-seven active cases for Belize District; for Belize City it is a little over two hundred and fifty active cases. The contact tracing has been very tiring for us because you have many people working in very big places, the living conditions as well; if you live with a lot of people, all persons work in that household so you can imagine the amount of work that we have. For this reason, we are appealing to employers especially to ensure that the public health measures that you have in your business is very strict; that it is adhered to. There are certain things that we have requested to not have a lunchroom where two or three people are in; call off all meetings face-to-face at this point; utilize the zoom or the online in order to meet or to communicate with your team. No parties. You know sometimes you have a lee birthday and the staff congregates, if you can kindly not be involved in anything like that. And if you have persons who can work from home effectively; just let them go ahead and work from home, reduce travelling. So anything that stops movement. The virus moves when we move.”