And in other news, 172 new COVID cases were reported today, taking the active number to 1,015. The daily positivity rate is now at 20.0%. There were no new deaths, but there are 7 hospitalizations.
And the vaccination rate is still hovering right below 50%. And it will probably stay that way for a while longer since the only vaccine presently in the country is Johnson & Johnson. But the Minister of Health said yesterday that they're planning on getting another donation of vaccines in the near future.
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health
"We are not going to stop purchasing vaccines, in fact we are getting vaccines, we have a donation, for example recently, Peru has offered, we have accepted to get 10,000 AstraZeneca vaccines, we have the Pfizer vaccines that are also being procured through the COVAX facility because we have to continue to provide for the second dose and the booster dose for our Belizean people. But we don't want to over request because at the end of the day we don't want to be able to have to do like what Jamaica, they destroyed hundreds and I think thousands of vaccines. Yes we had to destroy a few as well in the Pfizer, the deadline had passed in May. It's unfortunate that you invest in our people and then they don't utilize but again, like everything, I believe we have done our part as a government to ensure that those resources were available and we continue to encourage our Belizean people, for those who are not vaccinated, to come out and get vaccinated and bring your children."
There has been a double digit positivity rate for the last 5 weeks, and three vaccinated persons died of COVID in June.
