And while that's an ordeal that our athletes will never forget, here at home, the past year will be written in a hard and heavy hand on the pages of history.
Belize's first COVID case was detected on March 23, 2020 in San Pedro - the famous patient zero, and in the 364 days since then, our worlds got turned upside down and inside out.
We've just about gotten used to masks, social distancing, and constant sanitizing but what's also true is that no one who lived through 2020-2021 will ever forget the experience.
But if you've forgotten some of the more minor details, and if it kind of comes up as one big pandemic blur, Cherisse Halsall fils in the broad strokes and the details with this first part of her story recapping Belize's Covid experience:
It's been one year since Belize declared its first positive case of COVID-19 and that morning when the PM made the announcement he made one thing very clear.
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"We have our first confirmed case, but we mustn't overreact and we mustn't panic."
But while San Pedro was the first town to experience a lockdown, the rest of the country wasn't far behind.
And suddenly the unthinkable became the inevitable.
April 3rd 2020
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow. Announces Closure of Borders to Nationals
"Travel across district lines is curtailed and Easter is cancelled."
Indira Craig, News Anchor
"Belize's first COVID casualty Hubert Pipersburgh died on Sunday at the KHMH from respiratory complications."
On Good Friday we went from the Sudden appearance to the sudden death of Patient 10, and by Sunday there were four more cases, and by Monday, there were another four.
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow
"The time has now come to take the ultimate step, the entire country of Belize will be placed under quarantine."
From there life in Belize took a major turn as a much talked about New Normal set in. The New Normal In a Be-Masked Belize.
There seems to be an abundance of masks on Belize City streets this week, gone are the days when Belizeans would give the side-eye to over-cautious asian travelers. It's now the era of COVID-19 and despite the WHO's advice that masks don't help those who aren't sick, it seems that Belizeans would rather be safe than sorry.
Eventually, though, skies seemingly cleared and Belize's COVID-19 numbers started trending down.
And by the 8th of May we reached a milestone 28 post initial infection, the end of the first wave.
Posted (May 11, 2020)
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, DHS
"We won't say we are COVID-19 free we'll say we have gone through our first wave."
That was just part one of a two-part story called COVID; a year in review. We'll pick up the Pandemic story tomorrow starting off in June when Belize went almost two months without a new COVID case being detected.
