BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Aug. 27, 2020– The surge in COVID-19 cases continues; as of yesterday, Wednesday, August 26, 30 new cases were confirmed, taking the total tally in the country to 760.
Of the 760 confirmed cases, 695 are currently active, and 54 persons have recovered.
The eleventh recorded death to result from the COVID-19 virus is a resident of San Felipe, Orange Walk, 51-year-old Teresita Cruz. She died while being rushed to the Northern Regional Hospital on Monday evening.
Cruz is the sister of Natalio Wicab, the resident of San Felipe who was infected with COVID-19 and died over the weekend. Wikab had been a Caribbean Chicken employee, and his illness and subsequent death triggered the closure of Caribbean Chicken outlets nationwide.
In the recent breakdown of cases shared by the Office of the Director of Health Services on August 26, 8 new cases were found in the Orange Walk District; 2 in Cayo; 2 in Stann Creek; and 18 in the Belize District.
Data shows 6 recovered cases — 3 in Orange Walk, 2 in Corozal, and 1 in Stann Creek.
In an interview with local media, Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services, said that the Ministry of Health cannot lose track of the cases in San Pedro, where 11 of the new cases were found.
He outlined, however, that their efforts are currently focused on getting the situation in Orange Walk under control, since numbers in the area have been increasing.
On Wednesday evening, two elderly patients from San Pedro were transferred to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) after displaying respiratory symptoms.
On Tuesday, August 25, 17 new cases were recorded. Nine of those new cases were found in Corozal; 4 in Orange Walk; 2 in Belize; and 2 in Cayo.
Three recovered cases were recorded according to data shared on that day.
Currently, only the island of San Pedro remains under a total lockdown, since amendments were made to the Special Regulations, by way of a Statutory Instrument, which relieved Santa Martha, Guinea Grass, and Shipyard of the strict lockdown conditions.
Those villages are now only subject to the rules set in place for the entire country.
Belize Sugar Industries (BSI), for its part, issued a press release late this evening, saying “Belize Sugar Industries Ltd. (BSI) learned today that two of our employees have tested positive for the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
“We have acted decisively and quickly in collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to conduct our risk assessment and contact tracing for all other employees possibly exposed to these individuals. All employees identified as having close contact with these individuals have been informed and placed on self-isolation.”
“We can also confirm that none of the two employees who tested positive had contact with customers who visited the Tower Hill Sugar Mill,” the release said.
The Ministry of Health sent an infographic today which had said that there were 818 cases and 12 deaths so far, but a few minutes later, the Ministry said that the information was incorrect or incomplete (it did not specify which portion of the information required correction) and that it would send a corrected version. That corrected version was not sent.