And in other news, Belize is finally out of curfew jail! You heard right, tonight you don't have to rush home out of fear of the curfew cops lurking around the corner waiting for 11pm to ticket you. It's the first time in a year and five months that we've been without one. Back on September 4th 2020, the curfew was kicked to the curb for a couple of months, making a comeback on November 26th 2020, just after PUP's big win at the polls. Since then, there have been a lot of changes but tonight, things are a little more like pre-COVID times.
But that's not the only change - masks also don't have to be worn outdoors and you no longer have to pay for testing at the borders once you're vaccinated. This morning, the Minister of Health broke down the new regulations for us.
Hon. Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"One of the first things is that yes there's no longer a curfew as of today. That has been lifted. In terms of the border testing, both testing, whether you're coming on the air, sea or land borders, the requirement for testing will be now only for persons coming in that are unvaccinated - tourists, because Belizeans still who leave the country through land borders or anywhere must be fully vaccinated. So the good thing about that, and I know that's why everybody is saying, that now they no longer have to worry about if you stay overnight, 36 hours, 72 hours, once you are vaccinated and you come across to your country and you're Belizean and you can prove your immunization through your vaccination card then there's no need for you to test coming back into the country."
"For the mask wearing, we are saying if I am walking on the street, it's outdoors, if I'm just walking on the street on my merry way home, I don't really need to wear a mask. I just want to say this though because we don't want people to also not understand that that doesn't stop me, Kevin Bernard, or anybody from not wanting to wear their mask. If you feel that you're not feeling safe, wear your mask. Now if you're indoors, at the church, at a concert which we are now allowing at 75%, at a wedding celebration, you must wear your mask, at a sporting event at a stadium and you're a guest in the audience, you must wear a mask, any public building, government building, shops, supermarkets, banks, you must wear your mask."
"One of the things that we also changed, remember there were restrictions of spas and so forth, that has been lifted completely. The issue of all other BPO's, they were at 50%, that has now been taken up to 75%. But the main changes were really the curfew, the issue of the testing at the border coming in, and the 75% allowance for concerts and all these things. So the band couldn't even play, now they can play. So the entertainment industry can return to some level of normalcy with restrictions that there are only vaccinated people."
