Tonight the Ministry of Health and Wellness is confirming 24 new cases of COVID-19. And while that may not be in itself alarming, what is concerning is that the youngest of those new cases is a newborn, only 15 days old.
It's a diagnosis that comes as quite a surprise since the child's mother tested negative. Tonight we have a first-hand account of that diagnosis from Dr. Manuel Estrada, Chief of staff at the Northern Regional Hospital, where the newborn is admitted. He tells us what symptoms the baby showed upon admission:
Dr. Manuel Estrada, Chief of Staff, NRH
"As of yesterday afternoon, we have a total of 41 cases active in the Orange Walk District. Of those most of them are rural and some are from town."
Reporter
"Could we speak a little bit about the age range on these patients?"
Dr. Manuel Estrada, Chief of Staff, NRH
"Of the 41, most of them are young people. We have a variety of age. We have from 15 day up to 60s and 70s positive."
Reporter
"You are talking about newborn being infected with Covid?"
Dr. Manuel Estrada, Chief of Staff, NRH
"Yes, we have a newborn currently admitted here at the hospital, 15 days old that is positive for Covid."
Reporter
"Are we looking at one cluster, 2 clusters - what is the situation like?"
Dr. Manuel Estrada, Chief of Staff, NRH
"Right now, we have 2 active clusters that the ministry is closely monitoring. Both of them in Trial Farm. Its families that most of them have tested positive for Covid."
Reporter
"Would you be able to say was it reunion that these individuals had or they attended a religious service, how did the infection start?"
Dr. Manuel Estrada, Chief of Staff, NRH
"It's hard to pinpoint, but usually families gather together and they would have different reunions, they would have different social gatherings and maybe because they think they are family, they think they are safe and it only takes one to be asymptomatic to infect the rest. The baby was brought because he had fever and seizures, so it's a newborn, so we do all the studies and one of the studies that we do for all patients that are admitted here at Northern Regional Hospital is the swabbing, both rapid and PCR and the rapid came back positive for this baby. That's how he was detected. The mother of the baby is negative and we are still doing the contact tracing and so far we don't know yet exactly who give the baby the infection."
As we told you the newborn is from Orange Walk, currently the most affected district reporting 8 of tonight's cases.
And also among those 24 cases are five staff members from Belmopan's Ministry of Home Affairs. That office has been closed until Monday and the administration is reportedly monitoring all members of staff closely.
