A Further Relaxation of the State of Emergency to be Announced

A further relaxation of the state of emergency will be announced when Prime Minister Dean Barrow speaks to the press on Friday morning.  Belize continues without new cases of COVID-19, but the state of emergency remains in place until the end of June.  The National Oversight Committee, co-chaired by the PM and the Leader of the Opposition John Briceño, met on Monday and made the recommendations which were taken to cabinet and which are to take effect in the coming days. Now, since early this morning, some of the purported measures have been circulating on social media, pre-empting the announcement from the PM.  This afternoon, the PM’s office issued a statement to say the information is misleading and inaccurate.   But from what we can gather, not all the leaked information is inaccurate. Some of the measures you can expect include the relaxing of the curfew which is now begins at nine p.m. instead of eight p.m. and will be limited to Fridays and Saturdays.  Groups of persons at restaurants and other social events will be expanded to forty and boledo will now go on sale. The reopening of the airport is scheduled for July first, though it is not confirmed which airlines will be flying into Belize. Southwest’s flights from Houston and Fort Lauderdale are not scheduled until next year.  Government, however, is still grappling with funding from the international agencies which is yet to reach the treasury. On Saturday, the Attorney General will be going explaining the relaxation of S.O.E. So, tune in this Friday to hear what is in store going forward.