Last week Friday, Prime Minister Dean Barrow announced that Belize will be using the Abbot Rapid Test which will be rolled out for the P.G.I.A. reopening on October first. Today, we asked DHS Manzanero for some clarification on how those tests will be administered – and if it can eventually be used for mass testing […]
The Sanctuary Bay saga was back before the U.S. courts late last week. A default judgment was entered on August twenty-eight in the U.S. District Court of Maryland by Justice Peter Messitte. The Justice granted the Federal Trade Commission’s motion for a default judgment against Andris Pukke, Peter Baker, Luke Chadwick, and Belizean John Usher […]
There is a lot to cover tonight from the re-opening of the P.G.I.A. to the use of rapid tests coming out of a lengthy press conference with Prime Minister Dean Barrow. We will have all that coming up but we head to Corozal Town where a suspected burglar was shot and killed on Thursday night […]
The file of the fatal shooting of Matura will be sent to the office of the Director of Public Prosecution for determination. Minister Marin did not offer any comments today, but during a virtual press conference, Prime Minister Dean Barrow expressed that he is standing in solidarity with his cabinet colleague. Prime Minister Dean […]
Turning to COVID-19…the frustrations shared by many who have had to be swabbed and tested for COVID-19 include the lengthy waiting time for results to be made available. With the sudden increase in cases and a singular testing facility in the country, there has been a growing backlog of pending results. The accumulation of tests […]
The use of rapid tests has up until now proven fairly unreliable, despite the quick turnaround time for results to be made known. Consequently, the Ministry of Health has relied primarily on PCR tests which are more accurate. The constant complaint of delayed results, sometimes times as much as five days, has forced government to […]
On Thursday, the United States announced that Abbott Laboratories has commenced trials for its rapid coronavirus test to determine whether it could effectively be used on asymptomatic people. This followed an emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a COVID antigen test which it says will sell for five U.S. dollars and can […]
As to the patients, three are on ventilators at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. A doctor from the Cayo District, the ministry’s epidemiologist from the Western Health Region, is intubated at the K.H.M.H. He was admitted at the K.H.M.H. twenty-four hours before being placed on a ventilator. According to Doctor Manzanero, thirty-six healthcare workers are […]
The other big news out of the PM press conference is in respect of international travel. A fixed date for the reopening of the Phillip Goldson International Airport has been set for October first. The resumption of operations at the P.G.I.A. will coincide with the beginning of the 2020 tourist season and will see the […]
As of November twenty-second, Delta Airlines will resume flights to Belize. According to PM Barrow, the use of the Abbott Rapid Test should simplify the process of verifying one’s health status upon arrival in the country. Prime Minister Dean Barrow “Delta, that had earlier asked for September third, even before we made a decision […]
The twelfth person to die from COVID-19 was a man from the Mennonite community in Indian Creek Village, Orange Walk. Sixty-year-old David Wall began to experience breathing problems before he was transported to a private facility in Belize City. His breathing problems worsened and he died on Thursday. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 posthumously, but he […]
Belize has registered eight hundred and seventy cases of the novel coronavirus. Seven hundred and sixty-five are active cases – three hundred and thirty-two are females and four hundred and thirty are males. Ninety-three persons have recovered and twelve persons have died. The latest infographic shows that fifty-two new positive cases were identified in three […]
A twelfth person dies from COVID-19 in Belize. The most recent data released from the Office of the Director of Health Services confirmed late this evening that another person who was at a private institution in Orange Walk has died and that the post-mortem showed the individual was COVID-positive. The victim is David Wall of […]
So the new number of cases is fifty-eight. The Belize Central Medical Lab has been churning out COVID-19 test results every day. And despite their best efforts, the samples have been piling up as the positive cases increase and network of contacts become wider. But Director of Health Services, Doctor Marvin Manzanero says that the […]
The Central Lab is admittedly limited in resources, so is COVID-19 testing a possibility in private sector? It can be, according to Doctor Marvin Manzanero. Presently, the private medical facilities can only swab for the virus in their suspected patients after which the swab is sent for processing at the Central Medical Lab that is […]
Earlier this week a food vendor was brutally beaten and robbed by two thieves and fortunately for him, painter Alex Sanker, bravely fought off the duo. Another food vendor, Alva McKoy, has also fallen prey to thieves. This time, McKoy was robbed of more than seven hundred dollars by three thieves that pounced on her […]
The cops have been in pursuit of border jumpers and contrabandistas to minimize the risk of COVID-19. As you know, government has amended the law to impose a prison term of a year on anyone caught in the illegal activities. Police have been operating and monitoring border communities where contrabandistas continue to ply their trade. […]
Cross-border cattle trade with Guatemala was formalized several months after the illegal export of livestock was suspended due to concerns of COVID-19. Despite its informal nature, the business of transporting cattle for sale into Melchor via Bullet Tree Falls was an activity that endured for decades. Earlier this year, government put a stop to it, […]
Hulse’s announcement this morning came hard on the heels of the latest figures released by the Statistical Institute of Belize for the second quarter of 2020. During a presentation on Wednesday, the S.I.B. indicated that there has been a sixty percent decrease in the production of cattle. Hulse disputed that information, arguing that while the […]
The agro-productive sector is getting some much needed COVID relief from the Ministry of Agriculture. A sum of sixteen million dollars will be made available by the end of September for small and medium farmers in the form of cash vouchers to purchase items such as seeds and fertilizer. The relief aid will also benefit […]
Minister Hulse breaks down how the funds will be disbursed based on the constriction of the agriculture sector due to COVID-19. The Belize Agriculture Information Management System is the database used to interface with eligible farmers. Godwin Hulse, Minister of Agriculture “These are significant funds that will be injected into the agriculture sector. This […]
Students have been out of the classrooms for about five months since the COVID-19 pandemic began destroying all sectors of society. The Ministry of Education has announced that preschools and primary schools reopen on September seventh and on October fifth for secondary schools. The ministry has declared that students will not report to the classrooms […]
There are thirty more COVID-19 cases to report tonight. The Ministry of Health says that the new cases came out of a batch of over two hundred and fifty samples. If you saw the infographics earlier today, you would have noticed that the number of deaths increased by one, bringing the total to eleven. That […]
Back to the eleventh death. That victim is fifty-year-old Teresita ‘Tely’ Cruz of San Felipe. We reported on Cruz’s case on Tuesday – and as we shared from our interview with her son – Cruz was swabbed after she died. The housewife and mother of five experienced some fever and shortness of breath last week […]
Two suspected COVID-19 patients from San Pedro were rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital late this evening. According to a colleague on the ground in San Pedro, two elderly persons were experiencing respiratory complications and needed to be emergency lifted from the island and taken to the national referral hospital. In these images captured […]
