And the Minister of Home Affairs is also stressing that getting vaccinated is the only way to return to normalcy. He noted today in a Zoom interview that people desperately want to host and attend social gatherings, and they're even willing to break the law to do so.
And it's something that the Commissioner of Police is looking at too since he sent out a press release reminding the public that the department will be stricter with enforcing the COVID protocols.
But shouldn't this have already been happening? We asked the Minister, who said that police officers have been focused on fighting crime in the past month:
Hon. Kareem Musa - Minister of Home Affairs
"What we have to understand is that with the passage of time and the relaxing of regulations each month, there is that tendency to put our guards down. I think all of us in the population can say there is a sense of COVID fatigue, we are all eager to get back to a sense of normalcy but at the same time, we have to realize that we are up against a serious threat, this is an unpredictable, invisible virus that is always ready to strike, so while the numbers have been low, we can say right now, that there is somewhat of a surge that is concerning, so we have to get very aggressive. So, what the commissioner put out yesterday in the press release is a reminder certainly that we're not out of the woods, we have to take this pandemic very seriously and also as a warning, you see wakes, you see funerals, you see social events being all of held, all of which are still illegal under the statutory instrument. Last month you can say, contributed to the fact that the police officers were busy tackling a major crime spike that we were having, so we always have to be mindful that in this new era, police officers are expected not just to fight crime but also to fight this deadly virus and to ensure that we are doing as best as possible to keep our population safe, not just from the criminals but also from the virus. So that is the reason why the commissioner sent out that warning yesterday for these establishment and of course for funeral goers, people who are still hosting weddings, social events on the sea, Belizeans are getting very creative now because there is no policing out at sea, they are having parties out there now but we are liaising with the coast guard to make sure we crack down on all these social events, whether on land or on sea."
And with July coming up, flyers for Lobster Fest are already floating around social media. Minister Musa said that it was those very same flyers which prompted the ComPol's release:
Hon. Kareem Musa
"The release and the warning issued by the commissioner of police was actually prompted by those very flyers because there is no lobster fest so to speak, there are people that are going to be hosting parties and that is now allowed, which is what the commissioner is saying, so giving them fair warning that they will closed down but not only closed down but they will be charged. Now there is a distinction to be made here, when we talk about restaurants, the law was recently amended to allow 75% capacity for outdoor restaurants and 50% for those indoor restaurants in terms of your capacity. Now the moment that starts operating like a club and you have people dancing and mingling and going to each other's tables that is when it becomes offensive to the law and so that is something we're doing to have to carefully monitor. I discussed last week with the Ministry of Health, the minister in particular and his team that we could reactive the use of justices of the peace inside these establishments because we cannot leave it up to the establishment owner to monitor because obviously their best interest is to try to earn money and we understand that, we understand that we are in tough economic times, we understand that there is job creating whenever these establishments are open but at the same time if you cannot self-regulate and if you cannot self-monitor, then we will have to implement the JP system again to ensure that the justices of the peace keep the table separated and that there is no dancing or co-mingling."
