Tonight, the Police Prosecution Branch in Belize City remains closed after several of the staff working out of that office tested positive for the coronavirus - while others are showing symptoms. As a result, the 55-person staff is either in quarantine or self-isolation to hopefully mitigate any major spread coming out of that office.
Viewers may be aware that the police officers who work at the prosecution branch are specialized in the needs of the Magistrate Court. The police prosecutors, and the court orderlies, who maintain security inside the courtrooms, and the cellblock holding area, are necessary for the court's week-day functions.
That's why this COVID scare at prosecution is yet another crisis that the Police Commissioner and the Magistracy will have to manage.
The commissioner granted us an interview via zoom teleconference this evening to discuss this latest headache caused by COVID-19. Hand on head, here's what he had to say on the topic:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Earlier on in the week we had a number of officers who are assigned to Prosecution Branch in Belize City, who had tested positive for Covid-19 and based on that myself and our prosecution director Miss Alifa Elrington discussed the matter and we agreed that it was best that the Ministry of Health be brought in to do a more comprehensive testing to be able to ascertain whether or not there were other officers infected and as time progresses we observed that a number of other officers began to develop symptoms and so 9 persons were swabbed I think on Wednesday and today another 10 got swabbed. So, we currently have I believe from Prosecution Branch a total of 4 persons who have tested positive and additional 19 persons who have been swabbed, many of whom are already displaying symptoms, but the results have not yet returned. But they have all the symptoms in the sense that they have no sense of taste, no sense of smell, but headache. So they have the symptoms, so its just a matter for waiting for the test results to come in and so we decided that based on the advise from the Ministry of Health, that it was best that they closed down Prosecution Branch in Belize City and as you would know Prosecution Brancj being closed, then the courts cannot operate, because they are the prosecutors who would normally go to court and prosecute. So, they are closed for today and yesterday we had the place sanitized, as well as the witnes office behind the court building."
"We are hoping that by Sunday evening we will be able to get the results of the additional 19 swabs that were done to see who is positive and who is not. And then we will have to see how we can complement the prosecution staff in Belize City so as to enable the court to continue to operate while those officers who have tested positive continue to recover."
The Commissioner says that there may be officers who can fill in for the staff members who are on quarantine or self-isolation - and he is hoping that the Prosecution Branch could be partially re-opened on Monday. The biggest challenge will be to replace the prosecutors. He is concerned that this COVID disruption could be severe.
