And this morning at a Virtual Wellness Symposium in Belize City, Dr. Fernando Cuellar discussed the broad statistical breakdown between infected persons who develop symptoms, and those who don't:
Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Internist
"When it comes to Covid 80-85% - 8 out of 10 people who catches Covid will be either asymptomatic or with mild conditions and the other remaining will be 15% would require hospitalization for oxygen use and God forbid some of those would require ICU care."
The four hour event was the launch event for wellness week organised by the Ministry of Health.
The DHS saids the subject of wellness is even more important during the current COVID pandemic - while Cuellar underscored some of the risk factors.
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, DHS
"So of course we welcome the notion of wellness today, but it shouldn't be just today or the last week of September, it's trying to make sure how it becomes a topic that is as interesting remains as relevant as Covid19 is and we carry both of them along together."
Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Internist
"For example if we have diabetes we are 3 times more likely to get severe Covid rather than not having diabetes and we have obesity if we are extreme obese and you'd be surprise that Belizeans sometimes are a little bit unacquainted with that word "obese." I definitely that in the practice of medicine in Belize I like to transmit messages clear so if you fat and if you extra fat then that is called severe obesity. So this that I am seeing, the chronic fatigue I think I saw 5 patients last week with post-covid conditions and everyone of them describe a condition where they're fatigue, they are just tired, they don't have the energy and you do their physical examination and everything is normal, you listen to them their lungs and you take their pulse and everything is fine and dandy, but they still complain of having this severe generalize weakness."
Michelle Williams, Yoga Instructor
"So we could look at the time of Covid as being a time of despair and distress or we can look at it as a time when we can take a good evaluation of how we are and work towards evolution, work towards positivity and work towards progression."
There are events planned for all this week - starting with a staff testing day for tomorrow.
