And while the variants are in Belize and on the move, many police officers still refuse to take the vaccine - and they are also refusing to show up to work with a negative COVID test as required by the law.
And, it's amounting to a standoff with the senior command - as the non compliant cops are forcing the department to face some critical manpower shortages. We are reliably informed that this morning at Eastern Division Precinct Two, 7 of the almost 30 officers who showed up were sent home because they had neither vaccine or test.
We are told that amounted to a quarter of the cops on duty and it did briefly compromise patrols.
Again, we could not confirm this because the commissioner of police has not responded to media requests for interviews.
But, they've certainly got a situation on their hands and there are reports that the police association may be seeking an injunction against the department.
Their attorney Dickie Bradley has written to the Minister of Home Affairs saying the new measure to force to get a vaccine or a test will, quote, "result in hundreds of police across the country being sent home starting Monday. Implications of this for policing and security of citizens are enormous" End quote.
We discussed this with Bradley a short while ago:
Reporter
'Sir, police officers have been mandated to be vaccinated and on Friday the police department said that had to be effected immediately. There are many concerns about that and your office sent a lawyer letter to Kareem Musa this morning. Tell me how the situation is unfolding."
Dickie Bradley, Attorney-At-Law
"That letter arose out of a meeting with the executive members of the police association, because under the laws police are so important. They cannot be allowed to formed or join a union or even come together with another union that would like to be of help to them. The association is the closest they come to a union and so the executive had a number of concerns upon receipt of instructions on Thursday of last week and those instructions came out after 4pm."
Reporter
"The instructions were that any police officer who wasn't vaccinated should be marked absent. How will that affect the police force and indeed the entire country?"
Dickie Bradley, Attorney-At-Law
"What profession dis you practice ma'am? You sound like a lawyer. Yes, that is so, the other half of that is if you do not come with proof that you have been vaccinated then the alternative is that you must bring in a test that you have undergone to show that you are not infected. So it's you get vaccinated, you go and get a test, if not and you know the test is only for 14 days. After 14 days the police would be required if they do not vaccinate, to bring another test. The heart of the matter is two-fold; first of all, the notice is very short. Thursday evening and then there is only Friday with a weekend. It's not a pay day weekend, no money no deh. Nothing is not happening."
Reporter
"But sir, they would argue that the vaccine is free. What does money have to do with it?"
Dickie Bradley, Attorney-At-Law
"Because if you don't want to vaccinate, you are required to take a test. So if the vaccine is free why isn't the test free? Isn't that a relevant question? If the vaccination is free, come on and pay for me. Listen, it's we, me and you. Any time you buy a cigarette, a beer, a nice hair dresser, some additional hair, nail - whatever, we pay taxes, we pay police officers. It's the people of the country whose taxes pay the police officers. I am sure our people don't mind take out $100 for each police officer until we can resolve this problem. We can't be mean and cheap with them. They know we just find extra money for the Governor General as one good example that money somehow can be found."
Reporter
"Sir, the government has promise that vaccines would not be made mandatory, but given these circumstances aren't they now effectively mandatory for police officers?"
Dickie Bradley, Attorney-At-Law
"No, they are close. You know when you are learning to swim as you go out in the water when it start to reach somewhere around your shoulder, it's like I think I could get drown. We are not drowned yet. Its not mandatory. They are pushing you in that direction, because they know you don't have money and they know you can't really keep that up. How long will you go and take a test every 2 weeks. I understand the test is really a nuisance test. They are pushing something up your nose - oh my goodness. There are 2 holes you should not push things in, it's really inconvenient and if we can pay for the vaccination, we can pay for the test."
Bradley & Company's letter to the Minister of Home Affairs asks for a grace period to allow to S.I. to be implemented for police officers. They say that Musa himself had publicly acknowledged that he was in favor of this.
