And in health news, can you remember a time without curfews? Since the start of the pandemic, they have been changing constantly - either starting earlier or later - but in the upcoming weeks, it's possible we may be rid of them for some time.
Well, that's according to the Minister of Health, Kevin Bernard. He explained that if the COVID numbers continue to trend downward, then we might start seeing the relaxation of certain measures. And at the top of his list is this two year long curfew.
Hon. Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"For us it's indeed critical part of the analysis that we're going at the Ministry of Health and the COVID response team has been saying that ever since we opened the borders, we wanted to see the border trend over the next two weeks before we can take any final paper to cabinet in terms of easing some of the restrictions. So we have seen how the numbers have started to take its deep decline. Yesterday, the daily number of cases have dropped to a little over 100. We're hoping that that can go a little more down on a daily basis. So we are where we projected to be at this specific time where we will go to pre omicron levels as soon as we see that happening. So we are monitoring that for the next two weeks and in fact next week, I'm taking to cabinet, these recommendations that will be set out in the document. As we continue living with COVID, we have to at some point focus on that idea that we have to live with COVID, but we must also not take down our guards fully so while we are easing some restrictions there are things that must remain in place so we can continue to control the spread of the virus."
Courtney Menzies:
"Can Belizeans anticipate, if the numbers continue to trend down, can they anticipate a removal of at least the curfew?"
Hon. Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"Well definitely, that is one of the first things, and I will say and I think I mentioned it in an interview yesterday that that is 95% sure that if the numbers continue to show and continue to be within the 10-15% range of daily positivity then we are going to make the decision to recommend to cabinet that we lift the curfew completely."
