Earlier in the news, we showed you a few highlights from the latest press conference hosted by the Statistical Institute of Belize.
Well, during that media engagement, we took the opportunity to ask the Acting Director-General for an update on CENSUS 2022. This important exercise was planned from as far back as 2020, but it had to be postponed because of the COVID pandemic.
The SIB is currently finishing up its last batch of preparations to start the process of figuring out just how big the country's population has grown since the last census. The Acting Director-General told us that Belizeans can expect visits from SIB interviewers starting May 12, 2022:
Diana Castillo-Trejo - Acting Director General, SIB
"We are on track. we're on schedule with our preparations for the census. We are, right now, in the second week of our first round of training. We're doing our training of trainers last week and this week. That is on schedule. We have our training of field supervisors going to be taking place in March and then we will be training our 700+ interviewers in April. Households can expect that we will be out in the field for data collection around the middle of May. Census Day is May 12. So after that, they can expect to see our data collectors out in the field. I want to emphasize that because this is a face-to-face activity, there really is no other practical way to do it to get accurate information and such a large amount of information. We are taking all possible precautions to ensure that the data collection is done safely. Consideration for the respondents, consideration for our staff, and ensuring that we are in and out of the field as quickly as possible and that we do the data collection as safely as possible. So persons can expect that, yes, we will help interviewers visiting their homes. They will be equipped properly with their PPE, use their masks, their face shields. They will be - they have their own health and sanitation procedures that they will need to do, as they move from one hotel to the next. They will not be very close to any of the respondents. They have to maintain a certain distance when they are conducting the interviews. So, I want to encourage households, when our staff visits your home to cooperate with them. We are taking every measure possible to ensure that is done safely and quickly so that we're not out in the field of an extended period of time."
