But while those $75 tests are now a thing of the past, Cuellar says we shouldn't see it as a sign of a pandemic at an end.
Still very much masked this afternoon, he told us that the pandemic isn't going anywhere and that if he had his way masks would still be a much more prevalent feature of Belizean daily life.
Reporter
"Is the removal of this testing yet another sign that COVID is coming to an end?"
Dr Fernando Cuellar, Internist, Belize Medical Associates
"No, it will never come to an end and we should never change it to any other type of strong cold, or big cold or whatever. No, it's COVID ok and COVID will affect people, especially those who have concomitant diseases, you know, so we still have a few hospitalizations there from it, not in the numbers we saw last year or the year before but it is COVID and not a strong cold."
"I am one of those who will still advocate for mask-wearing ok. I think it still serves as a barrier, and I'm sure it will reduce the spread even if it's by 1%."
"But I am still one of those who would say let's consider the mask-wearing especially since we've noticed an increase in numbers lately."
"The mask-wearing, I would hope that, right now the official stance is that you use your mask if you want to, its a personal choice, but I think we can do a little better than that to at least in public settings, public venues we use the mask as much as we can. And ofcourse the public health washing your hands, keeping your distance and so forth."
As we've shown you all week positivity rates continue to rise - and tonight there are 169 new confirmed cases and 9 persons hospitalized.
