The press also asked the sports minister for an update on contact sports, and if the Government is considering lifting restrictions that make them illegal.
Viewers will know that the only local competition that was allowed to take place recently, was the home game for the Verdes Football Club. They are competing in the CONCACAF Champion's League, and last night, they went up against Costa Rica's Santos at the Isidoro Beaton Stadium.
The Sports Minister was asked about the lifting of contact sports restriction in the context of that game, and here's what he had to say:
Hon. Kevin Bernard - Minister of E-Governance
"I know when the Verdes team they are participating in a CONCACAF match, there are certain things we have look at in terms of football, some sanctions can come if we don't do certain things, but at the end of the day one of the requirements we had is that they can play at the stadium. However, these players that are playing must be fully vaccinated. That was one of the requirements. They are playing in a bubble, there is no audience will be allowed, not even me. They have sent me an invitation and I have responded to them in email that there should be no audience out there, so there should have been no invite sent to anybody and so we made that absolutely clear. They did get their permission through the Ministry of Health and of course through our ministry we had to support the fact that they had to compete this game to be able to participate internationally outside with the CONCACAF game. But I want to reiterate the position that in terms of contact sports at this point in time we are still not allowing contact sports. It is only in these special circumstances that we allow. However, the players must be fully vaccinated. Maybe I could add on to say that one of the things we are looking at and I am hoping to take a paper pretty soon for cabinet to decide, I want to encourage all our organizations; football association, basketball association - you want to compete, get vaccinated and then we will talk."
In news related to that match, Belize lost to the Costa Rican team yesterday with a final score of one to nil.
