BELIZE CITY, Tues. Mar. 1, 2022– It was reported at the beginning of this week that the nightly curfew was no longer in place, and also that the mask mandate was being partially lifted. The new Statutory Instrument which outlines the adjustments in Covid-19-related regulations, however, indicates that it is still required that persons wear a face mask inside public buildings and at indoor gatherings, such as church services, weddings, funerals, wakes, and repasts, as well as at social club events, and receptions.
Earlier this week, the Minister of Health and Wellness, Hon. Kevin Bernard, tried to provide clarity to local media about the settings in which mask-wearing is no longer required, and the settings in which the mask mandate will still be in place.
“Requirement for mask usage is if persons are attending an indoor event such as church service, wedding ceremony or reception, funeral service, a social club event. If Rotary Club is having a meeting or any of these fraternity clubs are having a meeting. If it’s an annual general meeting of an association, even if it’s under a tent, it’s indoors, it’s confined, it must be worn at all times,” he said.
“If you have to access a government building, supermarket, major retail store, bank or any establishment that is indoors with more than one person gathered, you need to wear that mask. On public transportation, buses, if you’re traveling in a taxi, you have to wear your mask. The wearing of a mask captures all of these areas,” Health Minister Bernard went on to explain.
.He then pointed to circumstances under which the wearing of a mask will no longer be required: “If you are simply walking on the street from home to the shop, you don’t necessarily have to wear the mask, if you are walking in an open space. If you are at an open area like a wide, huge park, where it’s just you and your children, then [you don’t] necessarily have to wear the mask,” he outlined.
Minister Bernard told the media that the decision to remove some of the regulations was made after a review was done of the country’s daily cases and hospitalization rate.
“Many factors were looked at. We are at the stage where our daily positivity rate, the hospitalization rate, has been very low. We’ve seen the evidence that Omicron has come, taken its peak, and it’s now taking its steep dive all the way down to pre-Omicron levels, and so it’s obvious that even around the world, restrictions are being lifted. But we’re not doing this because the United States did it, or the Mexican government did, or the Bahamian government did it or anybody. We are doing this because, in Belize, we believe over the two-plus years we have had regulations put in place recommended by our Covid Medical Response Team, and, based on the numbers, we feel like it is time to ease some of the restrictions,” the Health Minister said.
The latest SI also states that at churches and other places of worship, as well as other indoor venues where social events are held, only seventy-five percent of the number of persons that can fit in any such space should be present at any given time, and attendees must wear a mask.