Right now, Belizeans employed in the tourism industry are making their
final preparations to receive the first group of international visitors
who will fly to Belize on October 1st. That's when the Philip Goldson
International Airport will finally reopen.
Before COVID-19 afflicted the world, Belize was known internationally
as a tourist destination with unmatched diving sites.
With the return of tourism imminent, one professional who works in the
scuba diving sub-sector is hoping to empower his fellow colleagues with
the latest information on best practices for the profession.
He's Abner Bacab, a dive injuries medical specialist, who is licensed
by the Ministry of Health to practice as a hyperbaric chamber
technician. He specializes in treating medical emergencies which could
happen during recreational scuba diving.
Next week Tuesday evening, he will be hosting a webinar, where
participants will get to interact with some of the world-renown experts
in scuba diving. He's hoping to provide his Belizean colleagues with a
refresher on the basics, but in this virtual forum, there will also be
a discussion on what special protocols need to be implemented to
address the new COVID-19 world we now live in.
This afternoon, he spoke to us via teleconference to invite all the
local scuba diving professionals to attend this webinar:
Abner Bacab - Dive Injuries Medical Specialist
"A webinar, we're hosting on the 29th of September, 2020, at 6 p.m. Belize
time. It's going to be a zoom meeting. We're gonna be providing the links,
the password, and anything that you need to be able to join. So, we're
reaching out to all divers, scuba divers, dive masters, instructors -
anybody that is related [to these fields] and is going back to work, going
back to scuba diving October 1st. We know that the Belize Tourism Board
reportedly already have tourists who are already scheduled to come to
Belize. In the health and safety webinar, we decided, you know what? We
need to address this COVID-19 pandemic, and how it has affected our people,
our professionals, our dive masters, and instructors. We don't know to what
extent or how many of them were infected with COVID. They have recovered,
it is true. But, when it comes to scuba diving, it is a different world
there. So, there are guidelines and protocols that we need to follow. So,
we're having this Dr. David Charash. He's a well-known, US Board-certified
diving physician who's going to be hosting a webinar. He's going to be
talking about fitness to dive, what every diver should know. We're going to
go over the RSTC medical questionnaire. This is a questionnaire for scuba
divers. Before the go diving, they need to answer different questions. So,
this one is actually already included in COVID-19 questions that everybody
needs to answer. But, more into more depth, the doctor is going to be
talking about procedures, guidelines, and COVID-19 post return to diving,
[for] the divers who were infected, what procedures and guidelines they
need to follow. If you were infected with mild symptoms, moderate symptoms,
severe symptoms, there are guidelines we need to follow here in Belize. So,
I think this is going to be a very educational webinar for all divers in
Belize. And, we hadn't done one like this."
The webinar takes place via Zoom, and if you would like to attend, you
can find the zoom link on Abner Bacab's Facebook page. Additionally,
you can contact him directly at the telephone number, 615-2998, for
more information.
Channel 7