BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Dec. 3, 2020– The Office of the Director of Health Services went silent for three days this past week. An announcement was made that the countrywide data from antigen rapid tests would be merged with PCR tests data presented in the daily infographic.
The Ministry of Health finally released this updated data late Thursday evening, and the numbers are more staggering than predicted.
Recent data released on December 3 shows that a total of 1,382 new cases were detected since the last update on November 30. A total of 7,236 confirmed cases are currently recorded across the country.
A shocking 946 new active cases have been reported during those three days; the active case count stands at 3,501 as of December 3.
Since the start of this week, unfortunately, 16 new COVID-19 deaths have been recorded, taking the death toll to 164 and the fatality rate to 2.26 %.
Before the release of these staggering numbers, the last COVID-19 update published by the Office of the Director of Health Services was dated November 30. On December 1, a message was posted on the DHS’ Facebook page saying, “We are currently completing the merging of data to include rapid testing results into the established format; the data from private sector is also now being merged. We will be providing a detailed update tomorrow morning.”
These compiled rapid and PCR test data should have been published on Wednesday morning, December 2; however, as of 5:15 p.m. on Thursday, December 3, no updated COVID-19 infographic was released.
The announcement was first made that rapid-testing would be rolled out across the country, with a view to ramping up detections and containment of infections.
The Minister of Health, Hon. Michel Chebat, warned an increased number of cases would be recorded with the roll-out of rapid testing; this increase is now being seen.
In a late press release issued by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, they informed the public that the daily infographic would now include antigen rapid test results effective December 3.
The release states, “Due to this increased testing, the total number of COVID-19 cases has also increased and are being reflected in today’s infographic. This daily report will also include the new cases, the total number of cases countrywide, as well as a heat map providing the geographic areas and communities most affected.”
Rapid antigen tests will only be administered to those persons who are symptomatic or have had close contact with a positive COVID-19 case.
The data issued in the updated infographic shows a total of 241 new cases identified from a batch of 982 tests processed on December 3 alone. At that time, 38 persons were actively hospitalized, 3 needing intensive care.
Four deaths were reported on December 3.