Five confirmed cases of H1N1 in Belize – all linked to the casinos at the Corozal border – that was the headline last night, but tonight we’re digging deeper – trying to find out how what’s the threat assessment in the north and in your own home and work. First the facts: the five positives are from a batch of 11 samples sent for testing. Two of those test results are still outstanding. The Ministry of Health today re-iterates that the positive cases came from samples taken from the Las Vegas and Princess Casinos in the Corozal Free Zone. And even though hundreds of people pass through those casinos daily, Director of Health Services Dr. Michael Pitts says all indications are that the outbreak is limited.
Dr. Michael Pitts, Director of Health Services
“Most of these cases were mild cases and we understand that all have been managed and treated and most are at home recuperating or back at work as it were. Outstanding is that we still have some suspect cases of concern. The epidemiologist raised the alert with those and we are awaiting the results from those. When we tried to trend what is happening those suspect cases we found a link to the Free Zone and in particular to two of the casinos. Be that as it may though, the numbers are very small numbers in terms of the total volume of people that move through these different areas.
I believe that we have identified cases now from Princess and Golden Princess and there are very few cases. I would like to say we have five positive tests and they are mixed with links to the casinos.
It was a mix, I don’t want to comment too closely so that you could get a name of an employee or the other. But it is a small group and the important things is that it is a small group so it is not demonstrating wide spread transmission in the casino or even with the employees of the casino. Really you have an outbreak that is very very low considering what is happening.”
That cluster of cases that the DHS spoke about is all concentrated in the three casinos at the northern border – he did not specify which one has the majority or possibly, all cases. We visited today to get a sense of the level of alert at the casinos and in the zone – and we’ll have that story later.
