BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Aug. 13, 2020– The ongoing contact tracing efforts being carried out by the Ministry of Health has led to the discovery of over one hundred COVID-19 cases in just the first three days of this week.
We now are seeing a surge of cases, and the numbers change each day as these investigations continue.
Belize now has a total of 296 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Wednesday, August 12, 2020. Eighty-six (86) cases were identified from 257 samples on August 12; on Tuesday, August 11, 33 positive cases were found in 84 samples; and testing on August 10 revealed 23 new cases.
The cases are spread across the country; however, San Pedro, which has the largest number of cases, can be considered our local epicenter. The number of cases on the island now stands at 132, and is increasing almost daily.
Orange Walk has 75 confirmed cases at this time, across 8 villages. Many of these cases are linked to a construction site on San Pedro where many persons from Orange Walk had been working. Persons working at that location then proceeded to transfer the virus to their district of residence when they returned home. Twenty-eight (28) new cases are connected to that construction site in San Pedro.
Cases have also been increasing in Belize City, where there are currently 42 cases at this time.
The Cayo District has a total of 16 positive cases currently, and Stann Creek recorded 8 new cases recently. That district now has a total of 10 cases at this time.
Two additional cases were recorded in Caye Caulker, and one was found in Corozal.
During the Ask the Experts webinar, Director of Health Services, Dr. Marvin Manzanero, said that one COVID-19 patient is currently critically ill, in respiratory distress, and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH).
This person is one of two COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized; the elderly woman had to be transferred from the Western Regional Hospital (WRH) to the KHMH in Belize City for ventilation support.
(This evening, some reports were also indicating that a COVID-19 patient from San Pedro had to be airlifted to Belize City so that the patient can receive critical treatment.)
“We don’t have a ventilation system – we have a non-invasive ventilation at Western Regional,” Dr. Manzanero said. He went on to highlight the overall lack of human resources in hospitals and said that if the healthcare system becomes overwhelmed with hospitalizations, it would mean additional pressure on the few persons trained to offer ventilator support in an Intensive Care Unit.
Dr. Manzanero said, “We have two, three intensivists in Belize City and no intensivist that is doing intensive care work outside Belize City. So, even if you have twenty-five ventilators in your referral hospital, you don’t have intensivists that is going to be managing that.”
Information released today by the Ministry of Health outlines that 4 additional healthcare staff have been infected with COVID-19; these include 2 nurses, 1 lab technician and an X-ray technician.
Contact tracing and processing of samples continue.