BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 22, 2021– A rise in the number of Covid-19 cases has prompted the Minister of Health and Wellness to put in place enhanced Covid-19 prevention measures. As of Sunday, July 25, changes will be made to the curfew time, with the curfew period now extending from 9:00 p.m. to 4 a.m., seven days a week.
The Minister of Health and Wellness, Michel Chebat, said that he believes that the country is entering a third wave. With ramped-up vaccination efforts and added protocols to reduce the spread of the virus, the Ministry hopes that the country is prepared, but the Chairman of the KHMH has said that an outbreak may increase the need for human resources on the ground at the national referral hospital.
As mentioned, countrywide the vaccination campaign continues, with the northern districts being visited by the Ministry this week as a part of their health education campaign.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in Belize, a total of 13,893 cases of the virus have been identified. Of that number, a total of 332 persons have died as a result of the virus. At this time a total of 342 actives cases are present in the country.
On July 22, a total of 29 new cases were identified from a set of 1068 tests processed. On that day 36 new recoveries were also recorded and 7 hospitalizations were logged, with two hospitalized persons needing intensive care.
On Wednesday the 21st of July, the MOHW team found 49 new cases from 1382 test samples. A total of 48 recoveries were recorded and 6 persons were hospitalized, one of whom was admitted to the ICU.
On Tuesday, the MOHW reported that at least 116,426 persons have received a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccines and 43,857 persons have been fully vaccinated. A total of 1,918 persons were vaccinated on that day. A total of 1,097 tests were processed and 44 new cases were identified.
A total of 27 recoveries were logged and 6 hospitalizations were recorded, with 1 person needing intensive care.
Over the weekend, from July 17 to 19, 89 new cases were identified from a total of 2,368 tests processed. Fifty-five persons were logged as recovered and 8 were hospitalized, with 1 being placed in an ICU.
And last Friday, we saw 39 new cases being recorded from 843 tests processed. Ten new recoveries were logged by the Health Ministry and of the 8 persons hospitalized, one was admitted to an ICU.
Internationally, the World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that the world is in an early stage of another wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addressing the International Olympic Committee members in Tokyo before the opening of the games on Friday, he shared that a global failure to share vaccines has caused a widespread disparity. He said that 3.5 billion shots, 75% of all vaccine doses, have been administered in 10 wealthy nations, while only 1% of the people in poorer countries have received a single jab.
He called it a “horrifying injustice” and called on world leaders to do their part to fill these gaps.
Globally, as of 8:02 p.m. CEST, 22 July 2021, there have been 191,773,590 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4,127,963 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 20 July 2021, a total of 3,568,861,733 vaccine doses have been administered.