Only a few weeks ago, the active COVID numbers were at 400-plus and the third wave was slowly flattening. But the introduction of the Omicron variant has numbers spiking again, much faster than Delta.
With 630 new confirmed cases today alone, the number of active cases is at 2,714. 254 of those new cases were identified in the Belize District, 131 were identified in Cayo, and 93 in Stann Creek. Of note, Belize City had the most new cases of all the municipalities, with 171. But Caye Caulker and San Pedro - noted tourist areas with small populations - identified 15 and 29 respectively. Placencia, which is also a tourist destination, reported 22.
But while those numbers are soaring, surprisingly, the number of hospitalizations aren't nearly as high as they were some months ago. During the Delta wave, we saw hospitalizations surge into the 50's range, and ICU admissions were sometimes over 20.
But right now, there are only 9 patients in the hospital - 5 of them unvaxxed, one partially vaxxed, two fully vaxxed, and one not announced. And there are two patients in the ICU, one partially and one fully vaxxed. The good news is that there are no deaths to report tonight, keeping that number at 605. Today's positivity rate, though, is at an alarming 24.6%.
