The new variant is here to stay and, in the hopes of preventing a third wave, new, stricter regulations were announced today that will come into effect on Sunday.
The first change is perhaps everyone's least favorite - an extension of the curfew and a change in the hours.
And while many Belizeans have said that, to them, the curfew makes no sense, Home Affairs Minister Kareem Musa explained that later in the night, people out at various establishments tend to get more reckless.
He also commented that they will be cracking down on bars and nightclubs which operate under the guise of restaurants by installing Justices of the Peace to monitor them.
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"The curfew will continue in place; so, there will be an extension of the curfew from Sunday to Wednesday night it will remain at ten p.m., but there will be an adjustment in the curfew from Thursday to Saturday night. The new curfew will be eleven p.m., so it is just a reduction of one hour but an important reduction because we have seen where at these various establishments, restaurants, like the minister said under the guise - they are operating like bars and that critical hour where things get out of control and people start to party, which again, is not allowed under these regulations."
"In terms of restaurants we will continue with the seventy-five percent capacity for outdoor dining. We will also continue with fifty percent for indoor dining but here is the change, we will not be allowing dining inside a restaurant that doesn't have a free flow of air that is not properly ventilated. So, you cannot have an air-conditioned restaurant per se, it has to be a free flow ventilation indoor restaurant."
"We will also be activating the use of the Justices of the Peace. If you recall last year at Christmas time we had requested of Justices of the Peace to go into these establishments, these supermarkets and these home stores to regulate the social distancing and to ensure people were wearing their masks inside these establishments and we faired off pretty well, so I want to thank the justices of the Peace for coming in big for us over the Christmas holidays, but we will be calling on them again to now come into the restaurants and other establishments so that we don't have a continuation of the partying atmosphere. And so, what the Justices of the Peace will be doing is just like I said, ensuring that everybody is seated at their table, that there is no dancing, that there is no going to the bar and hanging out and that sort of thing and if there is any violation, then these Justices of the Peace of course will liaise with the Belize Police Department to have those individuals ticketed or in the case of an establishment, charged, if they are in breach of the regulations."
Churches and BPO's will also see a change in the way they operate:
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"In terms of church services, as you know last month we had agreed to extend church service to two hours and we are now cutting back to the one hour church service. And again that is with a fifty percent capacity inside the church. We are also encouraging and I believe we will be putting it in the protocols to cordon off every other pew to get the fifty percent capacity. I know that Holy Redeemer is one of those churches that actually has every other pew cordoned off, so that you are not allowed to sit in those pews and we will encourage all other churches to do the same."
"With respect to BPOs, we have been seeing an increase in numbers at BPOs, so we have decided that starting this Sunday there will be a capacity limit of fifty percent inside the BPOs. So this will create more social distancing inside the BPOs."
And the last regulation announced was a new one: frontline personnel who don't get vaccinated in July will be expected to present negative PCR tests every two weeks. Minister Musa explained who these personnel will include.
Hon. Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"We will be encouraging frontline personnel to get vaccinated, so the entire month of July we are requesting the following groups to get vaccinated and in the event they do not get vaccinated, then starting August 1st, these individuals will have to present a negative Covid test every two weeks. So, we are not saying that you are mandated to get the vaccine, we are just encouraging you, there is enough vaccine for everybody, we are encouraging you to go out and get vaccinated, but at the same time if you choose not to get vaccinated for the health and wellbeing and safety of the rest of the population that you are interacting with, you will be required to present a negative Covid test every two weeks starting in August."
"And so what are we talking about, who are the additional frontline personnel - so it definitely includes doctors, nurses, police officers, military - it also includes our educational frontliners, so this will apply to teachers. It includes our economic frontliners, so we are talking about tour guides. Even though I know the tour guide and tour operators have been getting vaccinated and they have actually the highest percentage of individuals vaccinated. It also includes restaurant employees and owners - they will be ask to get vaccinated as well as all of the casino workers. So these are the different types of groups that will be expected. In addition, we would also like to ask our spiritual frontliners; pastors and priests - they also interact with a lot of members of the public, we will be asking them also to get vaccinated in the month of July. I know a lot of them already have, but for those that have not, we will be asking them to get vaccinated in the month of July."
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