Covid Outbreak at Airport

0
13711

Immigration, Customs and BAHA personnel should have been among the first group of persons to get vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus, after all they are frontline personnel. But is seems that the Ministry of Health and Wellness failed them miserably. That is because an outbreak at the Philip Goldson International Airport has forced all immigration officers who were stationed there to have been put on quarantine either after testing positive for the virus or as a preventative measure.
Since Thursday of last week, The Guardian has been reporting that there is an outbreak at the international airport. By Thursday of last week, five Immigration officers had tested positive for the virus. By Saturday, June 26, two more immigration officers were tested positive. They were joined by t officers from the Belize Agricultural Health Authority. All told by Saturday there were seven immigration officers and two BAHA officers. By Wednesday of this week, there were as many as ten Immigration officers who had tested positive. There were also two Customs officers who were tested positive. By our count, this means that 14 persons posted at the airport have tested positive.
The entire scenario has now caused all Immigration officers that were station at the airport to now be on quarantine either after having tested positive or because of possible exposure. While the Immigration department has responded, the Customs department is slower in responding and only two of the officers posted at the airport who have tested positive are in quarantine.
Speaking to personnel at the airport, we are told that there is no coordination between the various departments and the Ministry of Health and Wellness to have these frontline personnel vaccinated. We are told that it was not until just a few days ago that immigration officers have begun to be vaccinated, some of them possibly having been vaccinated even after having been infected.