This coming Sunday will be the first no movement Sunday and there are a lot of questions of who exactly will be allowed to move around, and where. It's been said repeatedly that you'll be allowed outside of your house to purchase food items, medicine, gas, to go to the hospital or vet, and to move to and from the PGIA. But that leaves a whole lot of grey areas and, so, this afternoon, the Commissioner of Police gave an in depth explanation of what the no movement Sundays will mean on the ground.
Chester Williams, Commissioner Of Police
"The non movement Sundays applies across the country. There is absolutely no exception as it relates to the four destinations that were allowed to have curfew at 2 hours later compared to the rest of the country and those four destinations are San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Hopkins and Placencia so we're seeing that many Belizeans are rushing to these destinations with the hope that because they're going to be at these destinations that they will be able to move around on Sunday while the other parts of the country will stand still so I just want to make it clear that the no movement Sundays goes across the board and again the only businesses that are going to be allowed to operate on those two Sundays are fuel station, pharmacies, grocery stores, medical and veterinary institutions, businesses that provides public transportation so the buses and the boats, hotels and resorts for the purpose of serving guests as well as lodge and those other places of similar style and so any other businesses will not be allowed to open on that day. Now there are certain category of persons who may work at these establishments who need to get to work on Sundays and so those person likewise will be allowed to move to and from work. We know that there's local tourism and a number of Belizeans may go to spend the weekend at different resorts across the country and so they may go on a Sunday or they may be coming back from a resort on that Sunday. Now you might ask, will I be allowed to go to the resort or go to a hotel or will I be allowed to go home on a Sunday? The answer to that is yes so long as you can produce your reservation for that hotel to show the police that you are going to stay at a particular hotel or resort you will be allowed to move on that Sunday."
"People may have family members or friends who may be coming into the country on Sunday and so all you need to do is provide an itinerary for the person you're going to pick and the police will allow you to go to the airport and likewise coming from the airport, you produce that itinerary again and the passport for your friend or relative who came in and again the police will allow you to go home and to whatever destination you may need to go."
And while it won't be easy to prove that someone in the street is there for essential purposes only, the ComPol hopes that the public will take the regulations seriously. He also added that if caught breaking the law, the individual will be ticketed and fined $500.
