Today marks the one-year anniversary of Belize's first COVID-19 diagnosis, one year of lockdowns, curfews, and universal masking, and one year of the greatest public health emergency in a century.
Tonight in part two of our recap, "COVID: A Year In Review" we look at the end of summer, a summer marked by a massive spike in cases, and the way in which that situation worsened toward the END OF THE YEAR, hitting a crescendo in the days and weeks after the national election.
But we start back in June when things were looking up, so much so that our current Prime Minister decided that his role on the COVID task force was done. Here's that story.
At 3 months into COVID's entry into Belize, things were looking up. The then Leader of the opposition even felt confident enough to step back from the COVID-19 Oversight committee.
Hon. John Briceno, Leader of the Opposition
"I am fully satisfied that the People's United Party's presentation on the National Oversight Committee and on the other committees contributed significantly to our country's successful efforts to contain the Coronavirus. I am proud of my party's participation in this national effort and I thank all those who gave so selflessly of their time, energy, and ideas."
And as June came to a close that didn't seem too unreasonable with the lifting of the curfew and a return, albeit it with a mask, to relative normalcy.
Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney General
"The government has decided that we have reached the point where we no longer have to institute a state of emergency. We no longer need a curfew, so come June 30th we are not under a state of emergency anymore."
"We will not become July 1st a lawless country. That will not happen. Some people believe its wild west come July 1st, but will not be the case. There are certain laws we didn't use to enforce before, but we will enforce them now, because then we are still not out of the woods."
But a little more than a month later COVID was back in its initial ground zero of San Pedro - and it came from out district:
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, DHS
"We also think that the person in San Pedro that we identified on Sunday is not the index case."
But whether we knew it or not COVID was hitching rides back in by air and by sea. And two weeks later active cases were up twentyfold.
It was no wonder we were forced to skip the traditional September celebrations.
Jules Vasquez
"For the first time since Independence in 1981 there was no students parade clamoring through the City main arteries. Still, the flags flew, but for whom in this slumbering City gone ghost COVID took away the September drums and bugles and horns Albert Street stood as solitary and silent as a Sunday morning."
And then came the election, and the campaigning that preceded it, a series of much debated possible super spreader events.
Indira Craig, News Anchor
"Only eleven days in office Belize's new Prime Minister has tested positive for COVID-19 and this morning at the Belize HealthCare partners newly elected PUP representative David "Dido" Vega succumbed to respiratory failure caused by COVID-19."
And while this post election day was dark. The new year brought hope in a return to declining numbers.
Hon. Michel Chebat, Minister of Health & Wellness
"We have seen a steady decrease in positivity rate from 20% to 10%."
By February Belize was able to thank our Barbadian neighbors for their generous donation of our first 1000 Astrazeneca doses. And while we're still waiting for our COVAX allocation, the following month found us the lucky recipients of another 25,000 these came straight from the source.
It allowed us to get the ball rolling on our vaccine rollout, with enough doses for frontline health care workers, the most vulnerable amongst us. And more recently, even the media.
