Dr. Manzanero also discussed the coronavirus worries that the Verdes Football Club is facing abroad.
As we told you on Tuesday the Belizean football club travelled to the Dominican Republic to participate in their first match of the 2020 Scotiabank Concacaf League. They were supposed to compete against the Haitian Football Club, Arcahaie, but 10 members of the delegation tested positive for the coronavirus. The President of the Football Federation of Belize told us that the Management of Verdes had a difficult choice to make. They could either quarantine for 10 days and then play the match - but, if the virus was still present, they would forfeit and face serious financial penalties.
Well, a press release from Verdes says that they have decided to act out of an abundance of caution, and they are withdrawing from the tournament early.
Their press release says, quote, "In spite of having tested negative for the virus in Cancun, Mexico two days before departure to the Dominican Republic, two of the said players tested positive in Panama, en route to the Dominican Republic, on October 16th and the other four players and four members of the coaching staff tested positive in the Dominican Republic on October 18th. While we are distraught that our players and staff have fallen victims to this raging pandemic, we are grateful that all of them are asymptomatic and physically well."
"The Management of Verdes FC has decided to act in the most responsible manner and has determined that it is in the best interest of our players and staff to seriously contemplate withdrawal from the Scotiabank Concacaf League Tournament, and have our players and staff return home to Belize immediately." End quote.
It's one heck of a blow from bad old 'Rona - but how did they all get it.
The Director of Health Services appeared two hours ago on Ask the Experts - and said it's not uncommon:
Dr. Marvin Manzanero, DHS "They were likely asymptomatic when they travelled, is this alarming it's a small sample group that produced so many positives? No, that's the norm, once you have a positive and especially in football, that can happen. I don't know where these persons would have gotten infected though because my understanding is except for 2 persons that I know went one week ago, I understand that all of this team was concentrated in Cancun for almost 3 to 4 weeks and they did have people from different entities come into the Verdes Football team playgrounds and they played friendly matches with a team in Cancun, it would have been where they got infected but once you got one positive case and if you have not been routinely being screened, then people will train without a mask, people will eat without a mask, so that's a super spreader situation because it's a cluster, like what happened with the BDF when you had 27 out of 80 similar situation here. It doesn't seem that they would have gotten infected if they all were in Cancun for the last 3 or 4 weeks, probably got infected somewhere there. We did not screen them, I need to say that when they left the country, we only screened the last 2 person that left and they were negative."
The Management of Verdes FC says that 2 of the infected players remain in quarantine for 14 days in accordance with the Panama Health Authority. The other 4 infected players and 4 COVID-positive coaching staff are in quarantine in the Dominican Republic. The management continues to maintain regular communication with the sick members of their delegation who can't come home until their quarantine period is over.
The rest of the team and the staff are scheduled to arrive in Belize tomorrow. Although each of them is in possession of a negative PCR test result, arrangements are being made for them to immediately enter mandatory quarantine at the dormitories of the FFB's Headquarters in Belmopan.
